Tales of First Contact
by The Ghost Reviewer
Summary: AU. In 2049 AD, the United Earth Republic launches a manned expedition to Mars, and has a chance encounter with an alien exploration vessel. This single event will alter the destiny of not just humanity, but for the entire galaxy as well.
1. Timeline

**Mmm-hmm.**

**Yes, yes, yes, I know that this is not another chapter of Disgraced, but really, I've been sidetracked, and I've been wanting to try something new for a while.**

**This is more or less an experiment of mine, I just want to see how this works out.**

**Anyway disclaimer time: I do not own anything.**

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1 B.C. (Before Calamity) – 100-200 A.D. (After Destruction): A great calamity almost wipes out humanity and nearly crushes all of civilization.

Much of humanity's great knowledge before this time is lost.

But, the human race rises from the ashes and begins rebuilding sometime in-between 100 and 200 years after the 'Dark Calamity'.

1957–1969: The Space Race begins with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Russia launching Sputnik, the first ever artificial satellite into orbit, and ends with a joint project between NATO (National Alliance Treaty Organization) members, the Osean Federation and the United States of America landing the first men on the moon. American Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, along with Osean Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. return safely from the historic mission back to Earth.

During the space race, however, it was discovered that Earth was surrounded by seven energy rings with stange symbols within them. Many theorists speculated on the purpose of these rings, as well as the source of them. But no viable evidence was ever discovered about their purpose and their source.

Attempts to study the rings ended in failure, as the rings were fuelled by a mysterious energy that did not register on the current technology.

1974: On the Lunar Landing's fifth anniversary, Osea proposes the construction of a massive spacecraft in space, codenamed Arkbird. The plan is to have a defense matrix in space to protect against ICBMs from Russia and its ally the Union of Yuktobonian Republics. The European Federation declines involvement in the project, but America accepts the proposal. However the project is scrapped due to overwhelming costs.

1975: The Imperial Empire of Zaphias launches Brave Vesperia, the first weaponized satellite into orbit. International response is negative. NATO condemns the launch. The SA (Socialist Alliance), an ally of Zaphias, also condemns the launch, as they had no prior knowledge to the satellite's existence. The SA and NATO both order Zaphias to bring down the satellite. Zaphias refuses.

1976: A year after the launch of Brave Vesperia, Zaphias gives a demonstration of the satellite's power. The demonstration reveals that the satellite has two weapons. The first weapon is a powerful particle cannon, the second one being a rail gun that launches nuclear armed warheads. Months after the demonstration, NATO and the SA both send spies into Zaphias to locate Brave Vesperia's control center.

1979: The NATO and SA agents are both captured by Zaphias. Zaphias accuses both organizations of espionage. But NATO and the SA disavow any information regarding the spies.

1980: Zaphias launches spy operations into NATO and the SA. The spies are never found by either organization, and months after the operation ends, Zaphias declares war on NATO and the SA beginning World War III. At first, it was concluded that the joint forces between NATO and the SA would win, but Zaphias' military might is revealed to be much stronger than anticipated, especially with Brave Vesperia backing it up.

1981-1984: Zaphias' brutal campaign to occupy the main lands of America, Osea, Russia, and Yuktobonia is nearly completed. However, the invasion is pushed back when Europe enters the fray. The first thing the Europeans do is fire a chemical laser weapon, codenamed Excalibur, at Brave Vesperia, which disables it. This action gives NATO and the SA the extra push they need to fight back against the superior forces of Zaphias. Within two years, Zaphias' forces are pushed back by NATO, Europe, and the SA.

The Allies take the fight to the Zaphians the following month.

1985: NATO, SA, and European forces occupy two-thirds of Zaphias' mainland. However, right before the allied forces can reach the imperial capital; Zaphias is able to fix Brave Vesperia just enough for it to fire one last shot. They use it to fire the V2 MIRV (Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicle) on their own soil. Seven Zaphias cities are completely obliterated by the Nuclear Blasts. The cities destroyed were Tarqaron, Capua Nor, Capua Torim, Yormgin, Shaikos, Caer Brocram and Temza. The death toll is believed to reach more than 2 million. This action forces NATO, Europe, and the SA to stand back, but Zaphias officially surrenders the following day.

1986: NATO, the SA, and Europe sign the Firefall Treaty. The treaty calls for the discontinued development and for the dismantling of nuclear weapons. It is believed that 60% of all nuclear weapons are dismantled, with their warheads in storage, and their parts recycled while 40% are believed to remain in existence. The same year, Osea approaches Russia and Yuktobonia with a proposition to assist in the construction of the Arkbird. Yuktobonia agrees, but Russia declines. The following month, Osea, America, and Yuktobonia begin to develop plans in which to construct the Arkbird. The project will be used mostly for civilian purposes, but each country will contribute military purposes for the craft.

At the same time, the northwestern portion of Zaphias becomes the Union of Altosk, with Daghgrest as its capital, while the Southeastern portion becomes the Palestrale Federation, with Nordipolica as its capital, and the eastern most city, Myorzo, becomes a neutral city.

1990: The SA, NATO, and Europe found the GDI (Global Defense Initiative). The organization's goal is to eliminate any potential threat to global peace. The organization can also act on its own accord, being able to take action without the approval of the founding nations.

The same year, the Arkbird is 35% complete. The craft is expected to be completed by 2000.

1995: The Chancellery of Fendel launches a full scale invasion of its neighboring country the Kingdom of Windor. But just before the Fendelians can breach past Lhant, the GDI launches an assault into Fendel's capital, and forces the Chancellor to surrender.

GDI forces occupy Fendel.

The Arkbird is 70% complete.

1996: Erusia launches a large offensive into its neighboring countries on the continent of Usea. GDI responds by launching a counter offensive against Erusia.

GDI is victorious within 13 months, and occupies Erusia.

The Arkbird is 75% complete.

1999: The king of Windor is assassinated. His only son, Richard, escapes. Richard is able to rally a third of Windor's military under his loyalty. Cedric, Richard's uncle, calls for support from GDI and the Republic of Strahta to assist in suppressing Richard's rebellion. GDI instead sends support to Richard, as the organization had uncovered 'Undeniable Evidence' that Cedric was responsible for the assassination, and Strahta refuses to take any part of the incident.

The incident lasts for only a month with minimal casualties. Richard personally kills Cedric and retakes the throne.

Richard gives his full support to the GDI, while Strahta chooses to remain neutral.

The Arkbird is 95% complete.

2000: The Arkbird is completed.

The craft is revealed to be the first step into the construction of an International Space Station. Europe brings in its support for the construction of the station. Windor also brings in its support for the station. Altosk and Palestrale also provide support for the station. Russia and Strahta decline to support the station.

The following month, a leak reveals that Russia is constructing a craft that they will launch from the sea and will fly into space. Russia claims that the craft doesn't exist. International response doesn't agree with Russia, but the lack of conclusive evidence prevents the GDI from taking any action.

2004: Vincent Harling becomes the president of Osea. His first act is to open up diplomatic relations with the politically isolated Zaphias. International response is mixed. There are those who support Harling's decision, and there are those who completely disagree with the president's decision.

In an international shock, Zaphias welcomes Osea with 'open arms'.

Zaphias agrees to support the International Space Station.

2005: The Tethe'allan Empire launches an invasion into the Sylveranti Dynasty. GDI intervenes, siding with Sylverant. Tethe'alla surrenders the instant GDI enters the war.

GDI occupies Tethe'alla.

Sylverant agrees to provide support to the International Space Station.

Mizuho, Exire, and Heimdall decline involvement.

2006: Alexei assassinates the Emperor of Zaphias, seizes control of the throne, severs all ties to the GDI, and discontinues support to the International Space Station. Alexei begins preparations to resurrect Brave Vesperia.

GDI sends an ultimatum to Alexei, to either stand down, or face total occupation. Alexei refuses, instead holding Princess Estellise and Prince Ioder as political hostages. GDI Special Operations infiltrate Zaphias, and are able to pull Ioder out of harm's way, but Alexei escapes with Estellise.

2007: GDI launches an occupation force into Zaphias, but surprisingly, they only encounter light resistance, as two thirds of Zaphias' remaining military was fiercely loyal to the royal family. Alexei tries to hide out in Baction, and threatens to end Estellise's life if GDI doesn't pull out of Zaphias. GDI Spec Ops are able to infiltrate the hideout, terminate Alexei, and are able to pull Estellise to safety.

Ioder is crowned Emperor, reestablishes connections to GDI, and returns support to the International Space Station. Ioder proposes that Brave Vesperia become part of the International Space Station. GDI agrees.

2008: The Federal Republic of Estovakia launches an invasion into its neighboring country the Republic of Emmaria. GDI enters the war on Emmeria's side and pushes back the Estovakians.

GDI occupies Estovakia.

2009: Several Videos showing GDI forces massacring civilians in the various countries that they currently occupy are leaked onto the internet. International response is outraged. GDI, however, finds proof that the videos are faked, but while the governments believe them the majority populace doesn't.

The organization falls under major scrutiny from the press, but despite the public outrage over the videos, the founding nations continue their support.

GDI begins investigating who created the videos.

2012: The Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lavendear invades the Malkuth Empire. Daath sides with Kimlasca, while GDI sides with Malkuth. Kimlasca and Daath are both defeated within a few short months.

GDI occupies both Daath and Kimlasca.

Malkuth declines to support the International Space Station.

2014: The Shrine of Maxwell is discovered in the Ymir Forest. The discovery sends shockwaves across the Archeological Community, as most people had dismissed the shrine's existence as a myth. The Shrine contains ancient books and scrolls with information on various ancient civilizations that predated the 'Dark Calamity'. The books reveal that the ancients were far more technologically advanced than previously thought. However, the authenticity of the information is sketchy at best, as it claims that the technology that the ancients processed was far more advanced than even modern civilization. Within the books and scrolls are 'Blueprints' for the 'Weapons of Jin', mythical weapons that according to legend are fuelled by the planet's life-force.

When GDI examines the 'Blueprints', the developers simply dismiss them as 'Delusional'. Despite the claims that the GDI made on the 'Blueprints' some actually believe that the weapons could work, the problem is, is that some of the key materials mentioned in the 'Blueprints' simply don't exist. However, more 'Blueprints' are found, revealing them to be devices that can forge these materials. Unlike the 'Weapons of Jin', these devices can be constructed with available materials. GDI forms a Research and Development branch specifically to study these 'Blueprints'.

Within several months, GDI has the devices constructed, and to everyone's surprise, the devices truly forge the key materials needed to construct the 'Weapons of Jin'. GDI covers up the existence of these 'Ancient Devices', along with the materials they forge, and begins development of the 'Weapons of Jin', to test to see if whether or not they truly work the way the 'Blueprints' claim.

GDI also discovers a 'Blueprint' that looks suspiciously similar to Brave Vesperia.

The 'Blueprints' also reveal a device that can be used to study the energy rings that surround the planet.

2015: NASA begins preparations to launch the final module from America to the International Space Station. However, right before the SSTO (Single Stage Take-Off) Vehicle can launch from the Florida Mass Driver, a bomb detonates on the craft, killing everyone on board, and destroying the module, costing millions of dollars in damage.

GDI finds 'Conclusive Evidence' that Europe was responsible for the attack. Europe denies involvement. The GDI launches an occupation force into Europe. However, right before they reach the European shoreline, Russian and Yuktobonian naval forces assault them, proclaiming that they have sided with Europe, and believe the nation to be innocent. Osea and America get involved, and assists the GDI, by holding back the Yuktobonians and Russians while GDI assaults Europe. Zaphias, WIndor, Sylverant, Emmeria, and Malkuth enter the war on the GDI's side, while rebel forces in Fendel, Kimlasca, Tethe'alla, Estovakia, and Erusia side with Europe, hoping to spread GDI's forces out too thin.

But the GDI has grown so powerful by this time that it doesn't need to worry about spreading its forces out too thin.

The Arkbird sees its first military use.

2016: GDI occupies Europe, while America and Osea are able to occupy two thirds of Yuktobonia and Russia. American forces discover that the spacecraft that Russia was believed to be constructing, does in fact exist, and that it was being built at the bottom of the Black Sea. The craft was also revealed to be 83% complete. The Russian Government faces criminal charges for the craft's construction.

However, a month after GDI finishes its occupation of Europe; further investigation reveals that Europe was indeed not responsible for the destruction of the SSTO. The evidence was falsified, as the bomb was indeed of European design, but the bomb's cereal number reveal that it was part of a shipment that went missing several months before the SSTO's launch.

When the evidence is presented to the countries that allied themselves with the GDI, their reaction is extremely negative. All of the founding nations, Europe especially, along with many of the support nations discontinue providing funds to the GDI. However, several multinational corporations continue providing funds and supplies to GDI, thanks to a contract they have with them, keeping the organization's power in check. For this reason, government funding to these corporations are reduced to a bare minimum, but this only takes away a tenth of GDI's power, and the corporations still continue making profits from their civilian customers.

The International Space Station has its construction is put on permanent hold. The corporations, meanwhile, decide to finish the station's construction.

GDI also confiscates the Burket, the Russian's answer to the Arkbird, and has the corporations finish its construction.

2020: The Burket is completed, and is launched from the Black Sea into orbit, and meets up with the Arkbird.

2025: The International Space Station is completed, but is heavily modified to become GDI's Headquarters. The GDI also has one of the 'Ancient Devices' installed into it, as it was revealed on the 'Blueprints' to be able to produce manipulate gravity.

The 'Weapons of Jin' are also completed by this time. However, during their testing, a terrorist organization attacks each of the testing sites, and the weapons are all stolen. An investigation reveals that these were the same terrorists that forged the 'GDI Massacre Videos', and were the same terrorists responsible for the destruction of the SSTO.

Calling themselves 'The Adephagos', named after an abomination in ancient myths believed to feed off of the planet's life-force, the terrorists use these weapons to cause major destruction across the world. The weapons do more than just blow stuff up, they also cause crops to fail, create abnormally strong weather patterns, turn entire cities into ghost towns, forests are withered, grasslands are reduced to desert, and many animals become unnaturally hostile, especially towards humans.

The various nations reestablish connections with the GDI in the hopes that they could assist them in repelling the terrorists.

With their support from the founding nations renewed, GDI officially declares war on the Adephagos.

The Arkbird sees its second military use, while the Burket sees its first. The cannon from Brave Vesperia on the GDI HQ, for the first time in decades, is reactivated to combat the terrorist.

The Yggdrasil War begins.

2026: GDI has fatally damaged Adephagos, and destroyed all but one of the 'Weapons of Jin', the Gleipner, the Spear of Kresnik, the Heracles, the Thor's Hammer, the Legacy, and the Stonehenge.

However, the terrorist forces have already gotten close to their ultimate goal, for before it was destroyed; Adephagos was able to fire seven shots from the Thor's Hammer at an unknown location in the Bermuda Triangle. The blasts revealed a hidden island in the middle of the triangle that was home to many fantastical creatures, and to a humongous tree that was bigger than any other tree in the world.

The terrorist organization launches its remaining forces towards the island to destroy the great tree that resided on the island. GDI intelligence discovers that the tree is in fact the Mythical World Tree; Yggdrasil. Legend has it, that the tree is the source of all life on Earth. GDI realizes the whole time that the Adephagos plan was to bring about another 'Dark Calamity' that was foretold in one of the scrolls found in the Shrine of Maxwell, which would begin with Yggdrasil's destruction.

The organization launches a desperate defense force to the island to hopefully beat back the terrorists. Despite taking heavy casualties, the GDI is able to prevent the Adephagos from destroying Yggdrasil, and destroys the last remaining 'Weapon of Jin', the Spell Bomb.

The Yggdrasil war ends and the second 'Dark Calamity' is averted.

2027-2048: GDI discontinues Research and Development on the 'Weapons of Jin', stating that they are too powerful, and too 'Ecology Unfriendly'.

The various nations decide to permanently provide support to the GDI.

Despite the damage that Yggdrasil took from the war, the tree begins its recovery, it is speculated that the tree will return to full power within 100 years.

The 'Weapons of Jin's power makes the GDI take much of what was read in the books found in the Shrine of Maxwell, much more seriously now, as many of the books contained strange glyphs that claimed to allow humans to manipulate the planet's life-force.

Studies reveal that the glyphs do in fact do what the books claimed them to do.

GDI opens three facilities, at three classified locations, to study three sets of three types of the glyphs. One facility in America studies the Fire, Water, and Wind glyphs, another facility in Yuktobonia studies Earth, Electricity, and Nature glyphs, and the last facility in Zaphias studies Light, Dark, and Arcane glyphs.

A further look into the books reveal that the ancients had hypothesized a way to develop means in which technology could run on the planet's life-force, without totally burning it up. The plan was to create crystals made entirely from the planet's life-force and introduce an electrical current into them that would absorb and expel the planet's life-force. Research and development is able to produce a crystal that recycles 75% of the life-force used by machinery, without sacrificing performance.

GDI has many of the corporations under its contract to produce technologies powered by these crystals. Within several years, almost every piece of human technology runs on the planet's life-force. The world, however, has no danger of slowly dying from this technology, as one of GDI's corporate contractors, that specializes in genetic plant alteration, is able to successfully create the Yggdrasil Minor, a new type of tree based on the Yggdrasil that also produces the planet's life-forces, although on a much smaller scale than the true Yggdrasil.

By 2048, with the world running on this new 'Magitechnology', the impossible has been achieved. The whole world is united under a single banner.

GDI has its named changed to UER, United Earth Republic. Johnson Harling, grandson of Vincent Harling, Demitri Nikonor, Leonard Kennedy, Francis Banquo, and Lucian Marcian are named the first Councilors of the UER.

2049: On the 80th anniversary of the moon landing, the UER launches the first manned expedition to Mars. The craft is codenamed Destiny, and instead of being launched from the planet, it is instead launched from a rail driver on the UER capital, Freedom Star, the former GDI Headquarters, the International Sapce Station, which has expanded into a city in space.

None are prepared for the historic event on this day that will reshape humanity's destiny.

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**So what do you think?**

**Is it good enough for me to continue, or is it so bad that I should just take it down, or find a beta reader?**

**I honestly don't know where I'm going with this, but I'm hoping to get support for this, as this is something that I want to work on.**

**Just leave a constructive review on this, and I might continue it on in the near future.**


	2. Discovery

**Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is over. Here is the next chapter of Tales of First Contact. However, before we begin, I'd like to do some review replies (Inspired by my good old freind E350):**

**Major Simi: Thanks man. I really apprieciate the sentaments.**

**yaoi puppy: I'm continuing it right now.**

**DarkReaver724: The game isn't well known because it was released on the PSP. And not to worry, I'm continuing this story.**

**nwspor: We'll see what happens.**

**douchiesnacks: Trust me, Humanity will be anyhthing but weak in this fic.**

**Adaddon953: Thank you.**

**MetalKing1417: There's no Nod here, I just couldn't think of a better name for the organization. *shrug***

**Relvain Jenafuse: This is a crossover between Mass Effect and the Tales Series. TotW:RM was the only catagory I could think of to use for this.**

**Inverness: (Already replied to this jerk via PM. We didn't get along well.)**

**Jouaint: I don't know, what didn't I steal from?**

**Disclaimer: I own the OCs, but everything else belongs to either Namco Bandia or Electronic Arts/Bioware.**

**(P.S. I'm going to be including characters from other Namco Bandai series as well, such as Ace Combat, Soul Calibur, and Tekken.)**

**Edit 2.0: Okay, after getting my third anon saying the same thing as the two others, I've decided to remove anon reviews, for at least a few chapters. Why? Because if there is one thing that those idiots seem to be forgetting, its this major detail that I placed in the timeline, is that;**

**THIS IS A CROSSOVER FIC!**

**Further more, this fic takes place on an Altered Earth; an _Altered _Earth. This altered Earth is combination of various worlds in the Tales Series, our own world, and the Ace Combat World. I can't beleive those jerks decided to go ahead and judge this fic, just by going by this chapter alone. They either did not read the timeline, or they just jumped to conclusions after reading this chapter. The outline plot is going to be _Very_ different from the fic from which I was inspired after the next chapter.**

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Today was a historic day for humanity.

It had been almost exactly Eighty years since the American-Osean Moon Landing operation in 1969. But today, they had gone much further. They were now within the orbit of the neighboring planet of Mars. The Destiny had been zooming through space at over one hundred thousand miles per hour. Right now, the crew was just waking up from their most recent sleep. "Morning everyone." The pilot, Rena Kannomo, a young woman with short pink hair and green eyes, said to her crewmates.

"Morning Kannomo." Each of them said.

Each of the crew members sat at their assigned consoles. Ruca Milda, a young man with grey hair and green eyes, had his eyes on the oxygen gauges on his console. "The oxygen levels are good." He said.

Genis Sage, a man younger than Ruca with silver hair and blue eyes, examined his own console. "The deflector shields took a few hits from mini asteroids, but are still good." He said, nearly tired.

Pascal, a young woman with red and grey hair and amber eyes, only yawned, not even bothering to look at her own console. "No anomalies in the Artificial Gravity. Hmm, boring." She mumbled.

Rena shook her head. "Is there anything that will satisfy you Pascal?" she asked.

Pascal smiled, but kept her eyes slammed shut. "Maybe if there was a malfunction in the mana drive than I could have quite a lot of satisfaction. I want to be in danger; I want to SCREAM for my life!" She responded, spreading out her arms and legs.

"Don't get any ideas, Pascal. We can't afford any unnecessary risks." Guy Cecil, the man with blonder hair and green eyes sitting behind her, spoke up.

Pascal responded by pouting. "Come on, man. Where's the fun? This mission has been boring from start to finish." She exclaimed.

Genis turned to face her with a frown. "This mission is not meant to be fun. We are to arrive on Mars, plant a flag on the surface, collect dirt samples, and return home safely." He snarled.

Pascal responded by sticking her tongue out at him. Genis returned the favor by pulling his lips apart and waving his tongue at Pascal. Pascal retaliated by pulling her mouth with her thumbs and pulling her eyelids with her index fingers and sticking her tongue out. Genis grabbed his bottom jaw and upper jaw, pulled them up and continued to wave his tongue about. "Enough! Both of you!" Rena shouted.

The others turned to her, she was really not happy, as her frown was really deep. "If you two cannot act like adults, then perhaps maybe I should just throw you two out the airlock?" Rena asks.

"Uh, you are aware that you could get into deep trouble right, Kannomo?" Ruca asked.

Rena glared at him, causing the young man to back up. "He's right. And besides, Pascal and Genis here are two of top engineers, we lose them, and this entire project gets thrown back a few years." Guy spoke up.

Rena snarled in response, but he had a point. Pascal was the one who designed the mana thrusters for the craft, while Genis had designed the deflector shield to protect the Destiny from mini asteroids during the trip. Rena looked back out the window and sighed. This was hardly the time to be arguing. "You're right. Anyway, we're overdue for a routine check in with Freedom Star." She stated.

Rena reached for a button on her console. "Freedom Star this is Destiny. Do you read?" She asked.

She paused. Rena was fully aware that at the distance they were from Freedom Star, that it would take some time for the message to reach the station, as they were in lag range. Radio transmissions traveled at the speed of light, and it was estimated that the transmission would reach the station within a few minutes. The wait was almost antagonizing.

"_Destiny, this is Freedom Star. We read you loud and clear. Any problems?"_

There wasn't any technical prolbems, but Rena did have some problems with the crew. She ran her hand through her short pink hair. She wasn't uncomfortable, just nervous. The fact that this could very well be a one-way trip frightened her. Although she could never show it, she was truly afraid of the consequences. "Negative, Freedom Star." She replied.

Although she wasn't fully aware of it, the other crewmembers were also afraid. The Destiny was large enough to accommodate them, but the fact that the expedition could be a one-way trip frightened them. They were trained to conquer their fears, for that very reason. But it hardly helped them at all. "We're almost ready for the scheduled burn." She heard Guy speak up.

Rena looked out the window in front of her, gazing at the red target. "Almost time." She whispered.

-oOo-

Norlen was staring at his console with much anticipation-his favorite part of the mission was coming up. Every time the _ESV Narina_ would jump into a new system, the sensors would be flooded with data. Within only thirty seconds, he could tell if there was a planet that was capable of sustaining complex organisms. While the mission of the exploration vessel was to find new resources, and astrological phenomenon as well as life, the crew was always hoping for the ultimate discovery of a new civilization.

"_All hands, prepare for jump."_

After the Rachni Wars centuries ago, the Council decided to ban exploring new areas of the galaxy, as well as activating dormant Mass Relays. However, a recent Council-commissioned think tank figured that they would have been better off establishing first contact with a new species first, in the hopes that they could establish a peaceful integration sooner rather than later. Besides, the report mentioned that if a hostile race was indeed out there, better that they be found first, before they found the Council.

Just like many times before, the jump was completed without incident. "Scanners?" Commander Mavirea-an asari matron, and the one leading the mission, asked the Salarian, Norlen.

Norlen could tell by the way her voice sounded that she was tensed. The window after each jump was the most revealing. The salarian roved over the readouts and imagery with vigor. "Large gas giant, singular healthy star, red planet with thin atmosphere and ice-form water…" Norlen's eyed widened in realization. "Eureka! I've got a positive result here! Thick atmosphere, large bodies of water, large moon… scanning further."

All eyes in the _Narina_ were now on him, holding their breaths. This was the best result they had yet. Although the ship was equipped with advanced scanners, the distance from the planet made Norlen's effort's moot. "We need to get in closer." He sighed in conclusion.

Mavirea nodded. "Navigator, take us into FTL. Get us within scanning distance, but not too close to the planet. I don't want to be detected if there's anything there."

The navigator, a turian named Derios, plotted a course. "Roger."

It took roughly a few minutes to get within reasonable range of the planet. But for Norlen, it felt like a long time. However, the salarian was optimistic. Even if the planet wasn't inhabited, it could still be more or less a garden world ripe for colonization. That alone could justify the mission.

"Exiting FTL in 5, 4, 3, 2…" Derios remained steady in spite of the lurch that occurred right after the _Narina_ had exited FTL.

Right as soon as the ship was within range, all eyes were on Norlen.

The scans however, were puzzling Norlen. "That's strange."

Mavirea raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong Norlen?" she asked.

The salarian continuously looked through the data that was presented to him from the scans. "If I'm reading this correctly, there is some kind of strange energy surrounding the planet." He said.

That got everyone's attention. "What kind of energy?" Derios asked.

Norlen cupped his chin. "Unknown. I've never seen anything like this. Here, have a look."

A holographic projection of the planet came up, and surrounding the unknown planet, was seven energy rings. The rest of the crew was puzzled. "Norlen, what exactly am I looking at?" Mavirea asked.

Norlen hastily worked his console. "Unknown. Rings giving off unknown energy readings."

"Is it some kind of planetary shield?" Derios asked.

The salarian hummed in response. "Possibly. If so, must be incredibly advanced technology. Maybe even beyond Prothean technology."

Yenvia, another younger asari, looked at Norlen curiously. "More advanced than the Protheans? Does that mean that this planet could be inhabited? Maybe a long-lost Prothean settlement that we don't know about?" she asked.

"Presence of planetary shield, does not guarantee indigenous species, or Prothean for that matter. Must scan further." The salarian furiously ran through the holographic buttons on his console. "Ah, picking up many radio transmissions from the surface, and in low orbit around the planet."

The entire crew let out a breathe that they were holding. "You're certain?" the commander asked in reverence.

"Yes, yes. Not only that, but also picking up a large space station and…" Norlen stared at the data, confused. "Something else."

"What do you mean 'something else'?" Yenvia asked.

Norlen didn't reply right away and instead worked on his console. "Will bring up telemetry, now."

A holographic image of a space station along with two large space crafts, several smaller crafts, eight small satellites, and a large rectangular-cylindrical object popped up. Derios flapped his mandibles. "Is that a mass accelerator weapon?" the turian asked.

Norlen's answer was a hum. "Could be," He said as the image of the rectangular-cylindrical object expanded, while the other images vanished. "But could also be just a simple mass accelerator."

Mavirea cupped her chin and eyed the object. "I don't think that is a weapon. If I were to guess, I'd say that we're dealing with a species that is only within the early stages of spaceflight." She spoke up.

"I would like to agree with you, but what about the planetary shield?" Yenvia asked. "If this species is indeed in the early stages of space flight, then how is there a shield surrounding the planet?"

That was good question, how could this species be in the early stages of space flight, yet at the same time have a shield that covers the planet? That was exactly what Derios was thinking. "I'm going to have to agree with Yenvia. That doesn't make much sense."

This was indeed puzzling. Whoever these aliens were, they almost seem fully prepared for an invasion, or a possible asteroid bombardment. Regardless, Mavirea didn't want to inadvertently start a war with these people. A second later, a beep was heard from Norlen's console. "Hold on, picking something else up."

That got their attention. "What is it?" Yenvia asked.

The salarian analyzed the data on his console, before a slight smile appeared on his face. "Picking up what looks like a small craft. Far away from the planet."

"A small craft? How far is it from the planet?" Mavirea asked.

Norlen typed on the keyboard. "Ah, there it is. It's close to the fourth planet in this system."

Derios blinked in response. "Are you sure it's a small craft? Couldn't these aliens, use those two large crafts we saw earlier?" the turian asked.

"No." Norlen replied. "Those two crafts are too primitive to be exploration ships." He said as the images of the two space crafts from before reappeared before them. "Judging by their designs, I'd say that they're low orbital space craft. Possibly used as missile or asteroid interceptors."

Derios groaned in response. "In any case, what are your orders captain? Should we make contact with the craft that's far away, or should we contact the station?"

Mavirea thought about it for a moment. She could tell that the space station was defended, if the images were of any indication. However, because of how far away the smaller craft was, it more than likely wasn't defended. But that didn't mean that the craft didn't carry any weapons on it. Regardless, she needed to weigh her options. "I'll compose a message to the Council, and see what they would recommend. In the meantime, let's follow the smaller craft for a short while, while I wait for a response from the Council on who to contact with."

The bridge crew agreed. A second later, Mavirea began typing in the message to the Council. She needed to keep it brief as the _Narina_ was not connected to a comm-bouy network. _New sapient species discovered. Space faring but in early stages. Planet surrounded by unknown type of energy, and sheild. Habited space station in orbit, and an exploratory craft headed to nearby planet. Requesting recommendation to iniate first contact protocols with either exploratory space craft or space station, should permission be granted. Be advised, space station appears to be defended. Mass Relay presence in system is unknown._

Waiting for a reply was going to take time. Gathering further information on the smaller craft would satisfy some curiosity. With any luck, they could even tap into its communications.

-oOo-

Colonel Jade Curtiss, a middle aged man with long brown hair and red eyes, had just woken up from his sleep.

He wasn't in the best mood at this time, but for right now, he needed to see what was going on at Control on the Freedom Star. Whatever, he heard on the comm link, it was obviously something big. Once he reached the door leading into Control, he could hear much talking and clamoring. Opening the door intensified the noise. Being in no mood, he pressed a button on the wall that was close to him, and moved in closer to it. "Can you please be quiet for a moment?" he calmly echoed into the microphone.

A second later, all of the noise in the room stopped, and all eyes were one him. He removed his finger from the button right after the noise had stopped. "Thank you." He stated quietly.

The colonel then decided to make his way towards one of telemetry analysts, a young man with red hair and green eyes. "You wanted to see me, Grimm?" He asked the analyst.

Grimm instantly turned around, once the colonel spoke up. "Y-yes sir." The young man then began typing on his keyboard. "About thirty minutes ago, sir, we picked something up that's roughly close to our moon."

After he was done, the radar telemetry came up. At first there was nothing on it. But then the next second afterwards, there was a blip. A blip that came out of nowhere. But that wasn't all, the blip didn't even enter the radar range, it just… popped out of nowhere. If that wasn't enough, the blip wasn't even moving. "Did you run a diagnostic check, ensign?"

Mack quickly nodded. "Yes sir. I triple checked, just to be sure." He spoke up. "Also, Pops has something that I think you should definitely see sir."

"What does Peter have for me?" Jade simply asked adjusting his glasses.

Grimm stuttered. "Um, I think it would be easier if he just showed it to you."

Jade hummed in response. The colonel walked away from Grimm, and towards Peter 'Pops' Beadle, a man who as older than Jade, with dark colored hair and brown eyes. Whatever Peter had, it had better good. "Good morning Peter. I was told that you had something to show me?"

Peter nodded in response. "Oh yeah. I've got something that will knock you out of your shoes." The older man replied.

Pops then typed in some buttons on his keyboard, and the screen popped up just above his console. At first, the screen showed nothing but a small portion of the moon and the stars. But then, just five seconds afterwards, a spacecraft appeared completely out of nowhere. There was a flash of surprise from Jade, but it immediately faded away.

The colonel then leaned slightly closer to the screen and narrowed his eyes. He then took his glasses off, pulled out a wash cloth from his pocket and cleaned them. After he finished, he put his glasses back on, and looked back at the screen. The colonel turned his attention to Peter. "Are you certain that this is authentic, Peter?" he asked.

Peter snorted. "We have the most powerful computers in the solar system. There's no possible way that someone could have hacked us and forged this feed. I'm sure you saw the radar telemetry right?"

"Yes, Peter, I did. But I am still finding this to be… somewhat hard to believe."

He wasn't joking. Anyone would have a hard time believing what they would be seeing right now. But the evidence was undeniable. It was clear, that something far greater than what anyone could ever imaged had happened on this day. "Get me online with the president." Jade ordered everyone in the room. "And send a message to the Mars Expedition. Tell them that, something greater than their mission has just occurred."

There was a collective agreement. Everyone had gotten back to their work, and Jade walked towards his console behind a glass wall at the back of the control room. The colonel typed in his username, his password, and them typed in some other buttons, and the word Connecting, appeared on the screen. For at 5 seconds, the periods next to the word flashed, and then, an image of the president, who was a man in his early forties, and somwhat resembled his grandfather, appeared before Jade. "Good morning Councilor. I trust you had a good night sleep?"

The president responded with a yawn. "No, I had a terrible nightmare." The Councilor sarcastically remarked.

Jade lightly chuckled in response. "Well anyways. I guess I should let you know mister president that something extraordinary has just occurred today."

The Councilor blinked. "The expedition landed on Mars?" he asked.

"No Councilor. We have just made First Contact, with another species."

-oOo-

CODEX ENTRY: Freedom Star

Originally the International Space Station, the Freedom Star is the capital of the United Earth Republic. At first, the International Space Station was going to be the size of a football feild, and was going to be used to conduct experiments in space, but the GDI had altered its plans for the station after the founding nations severed their ties to the organization in 2017, tripling its size, having their multinational contractors finish the job and adding a Gravity Device found in one of the 'Blueprints' in the Shrine of Maxwell. The station was completed in 2025, and was used as the headquarters for GDI during the Yggdrasil War.

After the Yggdrasil War, the GDI chose to further increase the station's size, as well as to include housing, greenhouses, and small farms within the station. Although not yet complete, the Freedom Star already has nearly 10,000 residents living in it. It is hoped that the Freedom Star will be completed by 2065, and by that time, the space station is expected to house over 50,000 residents.

Due to the station's importance to the United Earth Republic, it is protected by eight mana cannons surrounding it, eight small manned shuttle craft, and the Arkbird and the Burket.

CODEX ENTRY: The Arkbird and the Burket

Originally conceived in the 1970s, the Arkbrid is the first pernament orbital maneuverable space craft that was constructed by humanity. The craft was build by a joint operation between Osea, Yuktobonia, and America in the 1990s, as a sign of their newfound freindship. The Arkbird was originally meant to be used as an offensive/deffensive weapon during the Cold War, but during its construction, the Arkbird's mission was changed to serve as a low orbit private flight for both civilian and government entrapenuers. Despite the craft's peaceful purposes, the governements chose to keep the weapons that were in the original plans for the craft, so that it could defend itself from any potential threats.

The Burket, meanwhile, was not a multinational project, and was instead constructed soley by the Russians years after the Arkird was launched. At first, the Russians kept the Burket's existance a secret, by providing minimum funding to individual locations in which parts for the craft were built, and to hide the craft at the bottum of the Black Sea. Unlike the Arkbird, the Burket was going to be used, soley for military purposes. However, after the European War in 2016, the GDI confiscated the craft, finished its construction, and used it against the Adephagos in the Yggdrasil War.

While the Arkbird is armed with Laser and Plasma Weaponary, the Burket is armed with Railguns and Missiles. The Burket is also slightly larger than the Arkbird, and is more armored than the Arkbird, at the cost of maneuverability.

* * *

**And that's the end of chapter 1. Next chapter is when communications will begin.**

**Also, this premise was inspired by Animus of Masada's Alternate Universe fanfic, First Contact. ****Its a really good fic. For instead of a hostile first contact, it instead favors a peaceful first contact. I feel like the hostile first contact is over done, which is why I chose this premise for this fic instead of a First Contact War.**

**And besides, if I did go for a First Contact War, the Turians would have been easily slaughtered by the humans' Magitechnology. As Magitechnology makes use of machines that the Council could never even dream of. ****In fact, pretty much every Tales game has Magitechnology in it, and it more or less replicates magic.**

**Anyway, Read and Review, my good readers.**


	3. Communications

**Here I am!**

**Quick update, don't you think? By the way, I've changed some parts about the previous chapters, namely, the United Earth Republic. By the way, I've watched the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut ending, and truth be told... I don't know what to say about them.**

**Anyway review replies:**

**douchiesnacks: Thanks.**

**karthik9: Here's the update.**

**yaoi puppy: Thank you.**

**StackerWlF: The only Tales game that I know of that has space technology in it, would be Graces, which was released in the US not too long ago. And no, the Before Calamity timeline isn't when the Tales Series happened, for the Tales Games are each independant from each other.**

**Jyggalag: First Contact will go well, I can assure you. But humanity won't be advancing that quickly.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the OCs.**

* * *

Rena wasn't sure what to say.

She wasn't sure if someone at Freedom Star was just joking around, or if they were being serious, about the news that had just reached the craft. "Freedom Star, could you repeat that?" the pinkette asked.

Minutes passed before a reply over the radio came up. "_We picked up an extraterrestrial space craft that just popped up out of nowhere on our sensors. It remained in stationary orbit close to our moon for several minutes before setting a course straight for you_."

Again, Rena was at a loss for words. This was completely unexpected. Deus ex machina wouldn't even begin to describe it. Here they were, millions of miles away from Earth, and just before they made preparations to land on the nearby planet, extraterrestrials decided to make their appearance near Earth. The rest of the crew was as, if not more dumbstruck than she was. The pink haired woman just didn't know what to do next. "Freedom Star, what would you say would be the best course of action for us? Because we are at a loss here."

She really wished that there wasn't such a thing as lag range, because it made communication pretty agonizing for her and the crew. Radio waves traveled at the speed of light, but even at that speed it would take minutes before she and her crew would get a reply from Freedom Star. A moment later, the radio chirped. _"Your orders are to carry on with the mission. In the meantime, try the best you can to communicate with the extraterrestrials."_

Rena slumped in her chair right after receiving that last transmission. She had no idea how she and the crew were supposed to do this. The thought of encountering extraterrestrials never once crossed the minds of anyone during this mission. It never crossed anyone's mind even before the mission began. Regardless, they had a job to do, and she figured that they might as well go ahead and do it. She turned her seat around to face the others. "So who wants to do the talking?" she asked.

The others just froze (save for Pascal). It didn't take long before someone spoke up. "Um, maybe I could do it?" Ruca said, raising his hand.

Rena blinked. It actually made sense to let Ruca have the go ahead, since he was the most experience when it came to politics. He knew that proper communication was needed in order to establish connections with other powers. Seeing it as her best bet, she mentally decided to go for it. "Alright, Ruca. The mike is all yours." Rena answered.

The pilot stepped out of her seat, and let the grey haired young man take it. "Hopefully, they don't try to obliterate us."

"Well, if that happens we could also point our cannons at them." Pascal spoke up.

Rena glared at her. "We will do no such thing Pascal!" She snarled.

Pascal backed up and held her hands out in front of herself. "Hey it was just a suggestion. It's not like they would try to destroy us." She then closed her eyes, and waved her fingers. "Though it would be fun if they did!"

Rena growled. "Pascal, this is not the time or the place to be joking about something like that." Guy spoke up. "For all we know, our guns and our shield could be nothing more than mere prototypes, compared to what they have." The blonde added.

"He's right." Genis snarled. "They're technology is obviously far more advanced than our own. They could rip us to shreds, not problem, even with our deflector sheilds."

"And it could very well start a war that we simply could not win." Rena said joining in.

Pascal simply banged her head on her console. "You're all no fun. I was just pointing out what could be the worst possible case scenario." She whined.

"I think it would be in our best interest if we just didn't talk or think about that at the moment!" Ruca shouted at Pascal, causing her to back up.

Not even a second later, the radar started beeping. "Looks like they're here." Rena said.

Ruca then put on the headset, and placed its microphone close to his mouth. "I hope that they can understand us."

-oOo-

The _Narina _had exited out of FTL, just shortly after they had jumped from.

Mavirea was still waiting for a reply from the Council on whether or not to initiate first contact, but she was optimistic. If this new species was as advanced as she and the rest of the crew believed, she knew that it would be in their best interest to integrate the newcomers into the Council. Especially since they had a shield surrounding the planet. "Any luck Norlen?" she asked the salarian.

Norlen smiled. "Yes. I've managed to tap into their communications. They seem to be fully aware of lag range associated with radio transmissions. And for the past several minutes, I've been busy translating their language. Hopefully, this means that communications will go well."

That made Mavirea sigh in relief. "Can you tell what kind of species they are?" she asked.

"I've been listening to them for quite some time, and I can tell by the sound of their voices that they are definitely mammalian." The salarian replied. "And, judging by what I've been hearing, I believe it is entirely possible that they are aware of our existence."

Norlen's words made Mavirea lightly jolt. "How?" Yenvia asked before Mavirea could respond.

"Must have been the space station. I probably got us in too close to the planet." Derios said scratching the back of his head.

Not a moment too soon, Mavirea's console started beeping. She knew exactly what it meant. She opened up the message from the Council, hoping that it came with permission to initiate First Contact protocols. And sure enough, that what was on the message.

_This is a message to _Narina._ You have permission to initiate first contact with new species. We recommend making contact with the exploration craft in light of the station's defenses. We wish you the best of luck, and hope for a peaceful venture._

Mavirea smiled. "My friends, the Council has given us permission to make First Contact. Derios continue following the craft."

Derios made the turian equivalent to a smile. "Roger that ma'am." He said happily.

-oOo-

Rena was tapping her feet.

"Are you ready yet?" she asked Ruca.

The grey haired young man only shook his head. "No, not yet. I'm waiting till they get a little closer. And I need to be to broadcast the signal on all frequencies." He replied.

"I honestly hope nothing bad happens." Genis spoke up.

"Which is why I think we should ready our guns! Come on, it would fun!" Pascal exclaimed.

Rena turned around to glare at Pascal. "For the last time, NO!" She shouted. "The mana cannons are only meant to deflect asteroids that are too big for our deflector shields to block! We are keeping those cannons powered down! Am I clear?"

Pascal only crossed her arms and laid down on her console. "Pascal? Am I clear?" Rena asked.

The multicolored haired young woman didn't respond. "Pascal, I believe Kannomo asked a question." Guy spoke up.

Pascal furrowed her brow, and continued to remain silent. This only made Rena even angrier. She walked up to Pascal, and slammed her fist onto the console. "I said; Am, I, Clear?" she snarled.

Pascal's furrowed brow turned into a frown, as she looked up at Rena. "Crystal." She murmured.

Satisfied with her answer, Rena returned to Ruca, who was just finishing his preparations. "Okay, we're ready." He said.

Rena smiled. "Good. Just be careful of what you say."

"You know, it's entirely possible that they won't know our language." Genis said as-of-matter-of-factly.

"We won't know until we try." Guy responded.

After pressing a few buttons on the console, Ruca held his hand onto the headset. Rena then put her hand on his shoulder. "Hello. Extraterrestrial vessel, this is the Destiny. I am broadcasting this on all available radio frequencies. Can you hear us? Can you understand us?"

-oOo-

Yenvia's console was beeping. She knew that it could only mean one thing. "It looks like the craft is broadcasting a radio signal… Towards us." The asari maiden began typing something on her console. "I'm playing it right now."

"_Hello. Extraterrestrial vessel, this is the Destiny. I am broadcasting this on all available radio frequencies. Can you hear us? Can you understand us?"_

Mavirea turned to Norlen. "Can you translate what they're saying?" the matron asked.

"One moment." The salarian answered as he continuously typed on his console. "And… There, we should get a rough translation."

The message was replayed in a language that the crew could understand. It was different for each member of the crew onboard the bridge. This made Mavirea even more hopeful now. "Yenvia, can you transmit a signal from us via conventional radio?"

The maiden only smiled. "I've already set it. You just need to speak, Captain."

Mavirea wasted no time in pressing her fingers on a hologram. "This is the _Narina_. To answer your questions; Yes, we can both hear you and understand you."

There was a moment of silence on the communications. Mavirea wasn't sure how the crew of the craft had just reacted now, but she was sure that they were surprised.

"_W-wow! So you can understand us! My name is Ruca Milda! This is definitely a historic moment for our species!"_

"He definitely sounds excited, I'll give him that much." Derios spoke up.

"Yes. It is indeed a historic moment. My tech expert has been listening to your communications for the past few minutes, and we've only roughly translated your language into our own, as well as translating our own language into yours."

Right after Mavirea finished speaking, she quickly remembered something. "Where are my manners, my name is Mavirea Harusa. It is an honor to meet you and your species, Ruca Milda. And we hope to welcome your kind into the galactic community." She had a somewhat difficult time pronouncing the man's name.

A second later, Mavirea heard Norlen speak. "I've just finished analysis on the craft. I'll bring up the hologram right now."

As soon as the salarian finished speaking, a holographic image of the Destiny appeared before the crew. It was small, compared to the Narina. The back end of the craft was definitely thrusters. Though not like any kind of thrusters they had ever seen though. On the top of the craft was what looked like a small dual barreled cannon, fortunately it looked like it was powered up, and they also looked really small. Small enough to not pose a threat, though the crew wasn't sure exactly sure of what kind of cannons they were. "The craft appears to be emitting the same unknown energy that we picked up from the planet." Norlen spoke up.

That was strange. Could this craft be fuelled by that energy? Could this region of space have some kind of anomaly that the Council has never once encountered before? Questions were racing through Mavirea's mind like crazy.

"_H-hey, Mavirea, are you still there?"_

That got her out of her thoughts. Mavirea quickly repressed the hologram on her console. "Forgive me; we were just admiring your craft. Its design is rather… interesting."

"_Oh, okay. I'm sure you must have seen our cannons. Rest assured, we only meant to use them to deflect asteroids that are too big for our deflector shields to block."_

So not only did the craft have weapons, it also had shields. Though judging by the readings that Norlen was getting, it was clear that it wasn't kinetic barriers. "Looks like a tough little ship if you ask me." Derios spoke up.

"_You said something about a 'Galactic Community'. Are there other races on your ship besides yours, whatever your kind is, Mavirea?"_

"Yes, in fact, there are three races on this ship, Ruca."

"_Wow! This just keeps getting more and more exciting! We're making first contact, with not one, but three extraterrestrial races? Incredible!"_

Mavirea could barely contain her own excitement as well as Ruca could. She could tell that she was going to get along quite well with him. But she wasn't so sure about the others on the craft, if there were others on the craft. "Ruca, is there any way that our ship could dock with yours?"

The next response disappointed her.

"_No. We didn't really count on this happening, so there's no way we can dock with your ship. Plus, we were given orders from Freedom Star to continue on with our mission of landing on Mars."_

Mavirea had a good idea as to what Ruca was talking about when he said 'Mars'. "This planet we're orbiting?"

"_Yes ma'am."_

"I see. Then we'll meet you on the surface, Ruca."

"_I look forward to it."_

At that moment, the Destiny ceased broadcasting radio waves towards the _Narina_. This was the best outcome that Mavirea could have hoped for; A peaceful first contact with a new species. And right now, she could barely wait to meet the newcomers in person. "Captain, the Destiny has just begun a steady decent into the planet's atmosphere." Derios spoke up.

Mavirea nodded. "Alright. Let's follow them."

-oOo-

"Freedom Star, this is Destiny, we're beginning our descent into Mars' atmosphere." Rena called out on the radio.

Right after they had finished their conversation with the Narina, Rena had retaken her seat in the pilot's chair. Although she was the one who was qualified to fly the craft, the rest of the crew also had training to fly the Destiny, but they decided that it was safest that Rena fly the Destiny into Mars' atmosphere.

"_Roger that, Destiny. Is the alien spacecraft following you?"_

"Yes sir. The _Narina_ is following us."

Right after she sent the message back to the Freedom Star, there was a jolt, and the Destiny began a rapid descent into Mars' atmosphere. Rena wasted no time in holding back the throttle. "Steady as she goes ladies and gentlemen."

The pink haired young woman looked out the window. She could see that the Narina was having little to no trouble descending into the atmosphere. They either had experience in this sort of thing, or it was because the ship was vastly more advanced than the Destiny. Regardless, Rena had a job to do, and she chose to focus solely on that job. "Ooh, this is so exciting! I hope we crash! KA-BLAM! KA-BOW! KA-BLISH!"

Now Rena wished that she had carried out her threat against Pascal.

-oOo-

"Well, I knew that this job was going to be full of surprises, but this wasn't one of them." Johnston Harling said as he straightened up his tie, while looking in the mirror.

He knew for certain that being the Councilors of Earth was going to have its ups and downs, and surprise after surprise. But in spite of preparing himself for the surprises up ahead, he was completely unprepared for the surprise of First Contact.

The UER was barely even a year old, and already they've encountered extraterrestrial life.

He had hastily written down a speech about the Mars mission, and about its one in a 'god knows how big of number' chance of encountering an alien vessel. He knew for certain that despite the evidence that he had, there were going to be those who would not believe that it was happening, that it was all an elaborate hoax. Regardless, he was going to say it all on worldwide television anyway. After he finished straightening out his suit, the door behind him opened. "Councilor, the others are waiting for you." He heard his secretary say.

Johnston turned around to face her. She was a young woman, just a few years younger than he was, and she had brown eyes and dark pink hair. Johnston nodded. "Alright, tell them that I'll be there in a second Cheria."

"Yes sir." Cheria replied, closing the door.

Finishing with his preparations, Johnston walked out of the room; from the same door that where Cheria was. "Lead the way, Cheria."

The young woman nodded. "Right this way, Councilor." She said holding her hand out.

The two walked down the hallways at the top of the Freedom Star, all the way down to the Conference room, which was directly below where the office and residences was located on the Freedom Star. Along the way, Johnston met up with his fellow councilors, Demitri Nikonor, Leonard Kennedy, Francis Banquo, and Lucian Marcion. Once the councilors stepped in, the reporters immediately began flashing their cameras and asking random questions.

"Councilors, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Councilors, is it true that the Martian explorers have encountered an alien vessel?"

"Councilors, is this some kind of prank by the UER?"

The Councilors ignored the questions as he walked up to the pedestals that had multiple microphones from various news networks from across the world on it. The president then pressed a button that was hidden from the reporters, and there were some thumps coming from the speakers. The thumbs silenced the reporters, giving Councilor Johnston the silence he needed in order to give out his speech.

"Hello my fellow Earthlings. As you are all no doubt aware, today is to be one of the most important days in our history." Johnston began.

"We had all worked hard, to at long last extend our reach to our neighboring planet of Mars." Demitri continued.

"However, just before the crew had began to descent onto the planet's surface, we picked up this image from the Freedom Star's Space Control." Francis repeated.

Johnston pulled out a remote from underneath the pedestal and pressed a button on it while pointing towards a screen that was right next to him. Right after he pressed it, an image of the _Narina_, the alien spacecraft that the crew of the Destiny identified, popped up on the screen.

"As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, this is a spacecraft that has travelled from another world." Johnston added.

"And just ten minutes ago, the crew of the Destiny had communicated with the aliens onboard the craft. The crew of the Destiny can confirm that the aliens have come here for peaceful purposes." Leonard said.

"As we speak, the crew of the Destiny is already speaking with the aliens in person on the red planet. We can confirm that once their mission is complete, the aliens will return the crew back safely to us, and from there, we hope to be able to learn much from each other." Lucian spoke.

"Our prayers go out to those brave souls out on Mars. Any questions?" Johnston asked the press.

He didn't have to wait long for an answer, as each and every one of the reporters wasted no time in repeating their questions.

All across the world, there was talk about the alien encounter.

Many people were greatly hopeful, others were skeptical, and then there were those who didn't believe it at all, but those voices were easily drowned out by the overwhelming numbers of people who believed the story.

-oOo-

CODEX ENTRY: U.E.R. (United Earth Republic)

The central governing body of Earth, the UER serves as a global council to maintain world peace.

Originally, the UER was known as the GDI (Global Defense Initiative), whose mission was to ensure world peace through force. However over a decade after the Yggdrasil War, the GDI decided that force was not the best solution to world peace, so beginning in the 2040's, the GDI began setting up a council that would be made up of representatives from each of the founding nations, called Councilors.

Each Councilor comes from each of the five founding nations of the GDI; Osea, America, Europe, Russia, and Yuktobonia.

Although the Councilors each have a say in what course of action should be taken by the UER, they are not, however, in charge of their respectable nations. Although the Councilors are mostly just representatives of the nations from which they are elected from, if the Councilors decided on a 3 out of 5 vote to disagree with their national leaders, they can overrule the actions proposed by the leaders of their nations, and can chose a better course of action in which the national leaders could take.

Despite its name, the UER is not _truly_ united, as each nation on Earth still maintains its individual sovereignty.

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**By the way, I was wondering if anyone would like to give their thoughts on the Codex Entries. By the way, before anyone says anything, I'm not trying to go for total realism here. If you ask me, total realism makes for a boring story. Also, I'm not very good with politics, as it can be very confusing.**

**Anyway, next chapter is when the crews will meet each other in person on Mars.**

**Read and Review.**


	4. Personal Greetings

**Sorry I'm late, I got a little sidetracked when writing this chapter.**

**At the moment I'm trying to get my driver's lisence, but its harder than I had thought that it was.**

**Anywho, Review Replies:**

**darkplayer35: Thank you. And we'll see what happens as the plot moves along.**

**Rybalov: Thanks, I guess.**

**Major Simi: Peace is there alright. For now anyway.**

**karthik9: Thanks, and here you go.**

**yoai puppy: The wait is over.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.**

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The Destiny and the Narina were both now near the surface of Mars.

The crews had chosen to land in a large plain to allow for easy traveling across the surface. The two ships were landing parallel to each other. The Destiny's descent had pick up a small dust cloud from the ground, as the craft was using conventional downward thrust in order to land. The Narina, however, was not using downward thrust. The crew of the Destiny didn't even bother about wondering how the Narina was descending without downward thrust, as the fact that the ship was just more advanced than their craft was all they needed to know why.

Right now, the crew of the Destiny was just exiting the craft, while Rena Kannomo was giving out a speech: "We have taken our first steps, to moving beyond our own world, and to make new friends among the cosmos."

It sounded awkward, as the speech was hastily written. Right after Rena stepped off from the Destiny, the others had followed suit, with Guy coming down next, followed by Genis, then Pascal, and lastly Ruca. The Narina's elegant design impressed the crew of the Destiny. "Everyone, are your cameras active?" Rena asked.

"Mine is on." Guy answered.

"So is mine." Genis spoke up.

"Mine too." Ruca said.

"Ditto." Pascal acknowledged.

Rena gave a nod of approval. The crew was ordered to have the cameras in their helmets on from the Freedom Star after they had landed with the Narina. The feed was being broadcasted towards the Freedom Star. But like radio waves, the footage from the helmets to the Freedom Star would take minutes, due to lag range. Regardless, the crew was more than eager to meet with the extraterrestrials, as was the rest of the world.

Both crews agreed to meet at a halfway point that was in between from where their ships landed. The halfway point was a conveniently unusual rock formation that some what looked like an altar. The Destiny crew shrugged it off, and approached the halfway point.

As they did, the Narina opened up a door on its side, and a ramp descended down from it. Three different extraterrestrials walked down the ramp. One of the extraterrestrials had a feminine body, another one was shorter and more slender, and the last one was taller and had a bulky body. The Destiny crew could only guess what they looked like underneath the suits that they were wearing. "This is incredible. Who knew that we'd be meeting aliens on Mars?" Genis asked.

"Who knew that they were going to visit us?" Ruca asked.

Rena turned around to face her crew. "This is by the most important moment in human history boys and... girl. Don't screw this up." she spoke up.

The others quickly nodded in response. Moments later, the aliens reached the halfway point. Both sides were obvious nervous at the sight as each other. Rena was the first to step forward. "Hello."

The feminine extraterrestrial was the first to approach her. "Hello." The alien spoke in a rather feminine voice.

Rena responded by holding out her hand. "My name is Rena Kannomo." She began. "I'm the commander of the Destiny."

The feminine alien reached out for Rena's hand, and grabbed it. "I'm Mavirea Harusa. Is Ruca among you?" the alien now identified as Mavirea answered.

Ruca stepped up right next to Rena, after Mavirea asked Rena about him. "I-I'm Ruca, Miss Mavirea." The young man said.

Mavirea let go of Rena's hand and reached out for Ruca's. Ruca was hesitant to hold her hand, as the young man wasn't very good around woman. "It's nice to meet you in person Ruca." The alien spoke up.

Ruca used as much of his will power as he could to reach for Mavirea's hand. "I-I-It's nice to m-meet you t-too in person, M-Mavirea." He studdered.

Although Ruca couldn't see it, but underneath Mavirea's helmet was a confused expression on the alien's face. "You are, nervous?" she asked.

Ruca barely choked. "Y-yeah. I'm pretty shy around strangers." He replied.

"Hey don't worry about Ruca." Guy said placing a hand on Ruca's shoulder. "We're all here for you."

Genis smiled underneath his helmet. "He's right. And we could definitely use the extra company here." The silver haired young man said.

Pascal held her hands behind her helmet. "It would be pretty boring, had we not have this chance encounter." She said, with a smile on her face.

Mavirea lightly chuckled. "Our meeting with you is as much as a surprise to us as it is to you." She said smiling underneath her helmet.

A moment afterward, Rena approached the other aliens. "So, what are your names?" she asked.

The smaller, slender alien was the first to speak. "My name is Norlen. I'm the Narina's tech expert. And the one who made the translations, so that we could understand each other." The alien now identified as Norlen answered.

The taller and bulky alien was next to speak. "And I'm the Narina's navigator, Derios."

"It looks like we haven't introduced ourselves yet." Genis spoke up.

Guy, Genis, and Pascal each took a step forward right after Genis had mentioned about how they hadn't introduce themselves. "I'm Genis Sage. I'm in charge of monitoring the Destiny's deflector shields."

"My name is Guy Cecil. I monitor the radar on the Destiny."

"And I'm Pascal. I maintain the Destiny's artificial gravity."

Mavirea turned to face each of them. "Pleased to meet you all, Guy, Pascal, and Genis." She replied.

"Guys, we should set our helmets to transparent." Rena spoke up. "I think we've kept our faces hidden long enough."

The other crewmen agreed, and pressed a button on the sides of their helmets. Right after they pressed the buttons, the masks on their helmets turned from black to transparent, allowing the aliens to see their faces. Mavirea tilted her head a bit. "You… Kind of resemble my species." She spoke up.

Rena looked at the female alien confused. "What do you mean?" the pinkette asked.

Mavirea turned to face Norlen and Derios. "I think we've been keeping our own faces hidden long enough as well." She said.

The other aliens nodded in agreement. Unlike the Destiny Crew, the aliens didn't press a button on their suits. Instead they held up the arms, and a gold hologram surrounded the arms. They each pressed a few buttons on the holograms, and their own masks turned transparent. The Destiny crew was dumbstruck at the sight.

Mavirea had a beautiful light blue face with deep ocean blue eyes. Norlen had an oddly shaped light grey face, with large pupils in his large oval eyes, and deep green iris along the edges. Derious' face looked quite intimidating, as he had metallic like plates covering it, and his eyes, saved for the center, which were dark grey, were black. To say that the Destiny Crew was amazed at the sight of their faces would be an understatement. "Incredible. You do indeed look like us." Genis said.

"What was that hologram that appeared over your arms?" Guy asked.

Norlen held his arm out in front of himself and the hologram returned. "These would be our omni-tools. It is with these devices that we are able to translate our language into yours, and vice versa." The alien answered.

"Cool. Do you have a spare?" Pascal asked, with glitter in her eyes. "Come on, please? Can I have one, please?"

Norlen smiled. "I knew our conversation would lead to you asking about this." He replied.

Norlen reached for something on his back, and pulled out what looked like a bracelet. "Just hold out your arm."

Rena approached him, and did just that. A second later, Norlen split the bracelet up, and wrapped it around Rena's wrist. A moment later, the same gold light surrounded her arm. "Nice." She said, dumbstruck.

Behind her, Pascal pouted, and crossed her arms. However, as Rena stared at the omni-tool in her arm, a thought struck her. "Oh my, I completely forgot. Forgive me my asking but, what are the names of your races?" She asked in haste.

Derios made what sounded like a laugh. "I can hardly believe that we forgot to mention that, Mavirea." He chuckled, making her giggle in response. "But anyway, let me introduces our species." He pointed to himself. "I am a turian. Mavirea, our captain here is an asari. And Norlen," he gestured towards Norlen. "Is a salarian. Now that that's out of the way, what is your species called?"

"We call ourselves humans." Ruca answered.

"Fascinating. Really." Norlen responded.

Rena meanwhile, was fiddling around with the omni-tool that was given to her. "Hmm? What's this?" she asked, as she was about to press a particular hologram.

However, Norlen grabbed her arm before she could press it. "No, no, no, don't press that!" he panicked.

Rena in response backed her hand up. "Why? What's wrong with it?" she asked.

"Um, forgive me, but, may I have that omni-tool back?" the salarian asked.

Rena nodded in response, and removed the omni-tool from her wrist. Norlen wasted no time in taking it out from her hand. "I apologize, but I seem to have forgotten about where I got this omni-tool. Forgetting something is extremely rare among my kind. I guess I was probably just really, excited to meet a new species." Norlen spoke rather quickly.

Rena lightly frowned and crossed her arms. "Was there something important on that omni-tool?" she asked.

Norlen shook his head. "No, this omni-tool is a keepsake from an… old friend of mine." He answered with a tint of sadness in his voice.

Rena understood the tone in his voice and chose not to pursue the subject. Just before she could ask Mavirea something, she heard a beeping noise on her right wrist. She quickly brought it up, and looked at it with some slight horror. "Uh-oh." She spoke up.

"What's wrong?" she heard Mavirea ask.

Rena turned to face the asari. "I apologize but we need to cut this short. My oxygen tanks are running low." The pinkette answered.

"Okay. Perhaps we could talk another time?" Mavirea replied.

Rena smiled and nodded. "Yeah, perhaps that is for the best."

After saying their temporary good-byes, both crews turned around and began walking back towards their respectable ships.

-oOo-

Once back onboard the Destiny, Rena immediately took off her helmet, and took a deep breathe. "Whoo. That was… Fun actually." She said.

The other crew members followed suit. "That was, i-incredible. I never actually th-thought that within my lifetime, that I would g-get a chance to meet extraterrestrials." Ruca spoke.

"I don't think any of us could have thought of this happening. And to us, of all people; a misfit band of misfits." Guy replied.

"I still think that it would have been fun if they were hostile." Pascal blurted out.

Having finally losing her patience, Rena turned around and punched Pascal in the chest. This caused the multi-colored haired young woman to back up and groan in pain. "Ooooh, what did you do that for?" she whined.

"I've lost my patience with you, that what." Rena hissed.

Rena looked at the three men, who were clearly not amused with her action against Pascal. Even Ruca wasn't amused. Rena only shrugged them off, and began walking away. "I'll be in the bridge, sending a report to Freedom Star." She spoke just before the door to the bridge closed behind her.

Ruca walked up to Pascal side, and held his hand above where Rena had hit her. "I hope this works."

A second later, the young man's palm began emitting a white light. "First Aid." Right after he said that, a flash of white light appeared above where Pascal was hit.

Instead of thanking him, she slapped Ruca across the face. The young man whimpered while he cupped his cheek. "What was that for? I just used a healing arte on you."

"Pervert!" Pascal spat.

Genis' eyebrows twitched. "Ah-wha? He was just healing your bruise. Which was directly above your heart!" He snarled.

Guy meanwhile crossed his arms. "You know, it's because of actions like these, is why I partly find it questionable that you were qualified for this mission, Pascal." The blonde spoke up.

Pascal responded by walking up to Guy, while making a face, and causing him to back up with his arms in a defensive position. "Aaaah!"

The multi-colored hair girl turned her head in response. "Eh? What? Do I have something on my face?" she asked.

"N-no, just, just don't come near me!" Guy answered.

Not a second later Guy ran away to his designated quarters, and the door automatically locked itself. A question mark quite literally appeared above Pascal's head. "What's eating him?" she asked.

Ruca was the one who answered. "Guy has gynophobia. Fear of women."

This made Pascal blink in response. "Well if he's afraid of women than why is he on this mission?" she asked.

"Guy is one of our foremost experts on Magitechnology. He's not much of an inventor, but he is a good engineer from what I understand." Genis said.

Pascal nodded in response. "Oh, okay. Well, does anyone know why he's afraid of women?" she asked.

Genis and Ruca both looked at each other, then back to Pascal and just lifted their shoulders. Rather than pursing the subject, Pascal just decided to shrug it off, and walk toward her own quarters. Genis and Ruca both decided that it was probably best that they returned to their own quarters as well.

-oOo-

The experience was rather exhilarating for Mavirea.

She could feel her heart beating at an accelerated rate. To be able to make a peaceful first contact for the first time in millennia, was nothing short than a monumental moment in her life. Once back in the Narina, she, Norlen, and Derios removed their helmets and took a breath of fresh air. She could tell that Derios was as exhilarated if not more so than she was, he was younger than she was after all. However, Norlen was a different story. The salarian continued to look at the inactive omni-tool with a saddened expression on his face. The matron decided to approach him, and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Is everything alright?" she asked.

The salarian didn't even flich. He just lifted his head, and stared off into the distance, his expression not changing. "Yes ma'am. I am alright. Just…" he hesitated. "Reminiscing on old memories."

Mavirea looked at the omni-tool with interest on her face. "Is there a reason why you brought that with us?" she asked.

Norlen turned to face her, and nodded. "Yes. But the reason is classified."

A moment later, the inner door opened up and Yenvia approached them. "How did it go?" the asari maiden asked.

"It went great. Except for the fact that Norlen panicked a bit." Derios answered.

Yenvia curiously looked at the salarian. "What happened? Did something go wrong?" she asked.

"No, everything went alright. But I think its best that we don't discuss it with Norlen." Derios replied.

Yenvia nodded at Derios. "Okay. Well, I thought you all should know, I have some really good news." She said with some excitement in her voice.

This peaked Mavirea's interest. "What do you have for us, young one?"

Yenvia brought up her omni-tool, and pressed a few buttons. A second later, an image of the solar system emerged. The maiden then pressed a few more buttons, and the image zoomed in on the edge of the system. "I detected a dormant Mass Relay on the edge of the system."

That was really good news. Mavirea smiled. "Good work, young one. I'll send a message to the Council."

"I already sent it. And they said that we have permission to activate it, and see where it leads." Yenvia spoke up.

Mavirea tapped Yenvia's shoulder. "Thank you. I'll be sure to tell our new friends about this."

"Also, there's something else that I discovered." Yenvia then pressed some more holograms on her omni-tool, and the image zoomed in onto the planet that they were currently standing on. "There's a weak Mass Effect field that's about one hundred kilometers southeast from our location."

Mavirea's eyes had widened in shock. "Do you think it may be Prothean ruins?" she asked.

Yenvia nodded. "Yes ma'am. I do believe that it could be Prothean ruins."

"That's great. Looks like this trip has just gotten even more exciting." Derios spoke.

"Alright, you know what to do right?" Mavirea asked, Yenvia.

The maiden nodded. "Yes indeed. I'll go prep up the Surveyor." She said walking down the hall.

Mavirea and Derios looked at each other. "What goes around comes around." Derios laughed.

"Indeed. Norlen are you coming, we could use your help." Mavirea said to the salarian.

Norlen lifted up his head and stared at the asari matron. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up with you."

Rather than persue the subject, Derios and Mavirea chose to walk back to the bridge. "Well, take your time, but I need everyone to be ready as soon as possible." The captain said before leaving the air lock.

Norlen nodded. "Understood."

Once the others were out of the airlock, Norlen returned to staring at the inactive omni-tool. It was important that he held on to the omni-tool no matter what. He simply couldn't believe how naïve he was to let a member of the newcomers fiddle around with it. Then again, he was certain that anyone could have been as naïve as he was when meeting a new species. But regardless, it was foolish of him to hand it over, as he had easily had forgotten what was on the omni-tool that he was holding. "No-one must see this." He said to himself. "No-one."

-oOo-

"_What you are seeing here is not forged footage ladies and gentlemen. The Mars expedition has indeed made contact with extraterrestrials on the surface of Mars."_

"_The Martian Expedition has made a historical moment greater than just landing on our neighboring planet."_

"_The aliens appear to have made their way into our solar system, and are right now speaking with our brave friends up there on the Red Planet."_

"_Reports have come in from around the world, of people celebrating our first contact with life from outside of our solar system."_

"_It seems that there are people gathering around the Kremlin in Moscow, clamoring that 'First Contact' is a sham made by the UER."_

"_These so-called 'Aliens' are clearly a live computer generated forgery by the tyranny that is the UER to try to keep the people in line!"_

"_I don't f***ing know what the f*** these people think they f***ing are, but these f***ing 'Aliens' are clearly f***ing fake!"_

"_Aliens on Mars? There are no Aliens on Mars! The UER is making it all the more clear that they are trying to keep us the people in line! Wake up world! The UER is a fascist regime that will stop at nothing to take away our freedoms!"_

"_The stupid asses who don't believe the footages are clearly too dumb to even live! There's no way in hell that the UER would make up something like this!"_

"_We've made first contact with extraterrestrials on our neighboring planet, and there are people who don't believe that it's real? Did their mothers' drop them on their heads when they were born?"_

Up on the Freedom Star, the Councilors were watching news footages from across the world. Most believed that the footage from the Martian expedition was real, but there were others who did not believe so. Fortunately, it seemed like most of the extreme skeptics were being suppressed to the best of the local authorities' capabilities.

Johnston could see that the extreme skeptics in his hometown of Oured were being suppressed. It saddened him to see that some of his own people, the Oseans, didn't buy into the authenticity of the First Contact Footage.

Regardless, the violent protestors were few and far inbetween. Still, the Councilors needed to prepare for the aliens to arrive in Earth's orbit, and were doing the best to their abilities to make their visit as respectful as they possibly could.

* * *

**No codex entry this time, unfortunately. I just couldn't find anything to talk about this time.**

**Oh, and before I forget:**

**TALES OF XILLIA IS CONFIRMED FOR A NORTH AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN REALESE IN 2013! WOOOOOOOO!**

**Read and Review.**


	5. First Contact Riots

**This chapter will focus primarily focus on the riots that sprung up as a result of First Contact.**

**I'm sure that some of you might see as a bit extreme, but don't forget that this is my story, and that I am not going for total realism here.**

**No review replies this time, as I'm writing these author's notes on my brand new Google Nexus 7 that I got from GameStop today.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the OCs.**

* * *

On the Citadel, the current Councilors were examining the data that was sent to them from the Narina.

The three of them were each relieved that First Contact had gone well, and were looking forward to intergrading the new race into the Council as a client species. They were fortunate to have met a peaceful race rather than a violent one, especially since the report mentioned that the new species' home planet was surrounded by some kind of shield, the likes of which the Council had never seen before. "Does this report mention how this new species was able to surround their planet with a massive shield?" the Turian Councilor asked.

The asari councilor shook her head. "No, it does not. So far, they've only made contact with explorers who were sent to a nearby planet within their solar system." She answered. "And I don't think that even they know how the planetary shield works."

"What about this strange energy that the Narina crew mentioned?" the turian asked. "The Narina said that the planet was surrounded by an unknown type of energy. Is it possible that the shield and the energy are connected?" he added.

"Maybe." The salarian councilor spoke up. "But at the moment, we don't have sufficient data to come to any kind of conclusions."

The three of them each continued looking at the data. One thing that really caught their interest was the humans' technology. The report mentioned that the craft that the Narina had made contact with was emitting the same strange energy that was surrounding the planet. "It's possible that these, 'humans', may have found a way to harness this energy." The salarian councilor said. "And if this report is accurate, it's also possible that these humans could provide us with a technological leap."

"Perhaps." The turian councilor replied. "But the question is, are they willing to share this technology?" he asked. "If anything, they'd probably want to keep it to themselves."

"If that will be the case, than I wouldn't blame them." The asari councilor remarked. "Who knows what this technology can do. At the same time, I do believe that it is possible that the human's lives may very well depend upon this energy."

"Could be. But I think it would be best that we get more data before we come to conclusions, Kerida." The salarian councilor spoke to the asari councilor, who was now identified as Kerida.

"I'm going to have to agree with Laen. We need more data before we move on to the next step." The turian councilor said.

Kerida nodded in response. "You both have good points, Laen and Torrus. We need more data on the humans before we make our next step."

After their brief conversation, the councilors each returned to examining the data.

-oOo-

"Freedom Star, are you positive about this?" Rena asked.

She had gotten a report from Freedom Star that she hoped that she would never get. Their meeting with the aliens caused riots on Earth. It filled her with great dread that the non-believers were using the fact that radio and television signals had lag range, to fuel their arguments that the meeting was faked. But from what she had heard, the governments were doing all they could to prove to the people of Earth that the video was not faked, but it sounded like they weren't having much success.

"_Yes Konnomo. We recommend that you and your crew return to Earth as soon as you possibly can. You've been ordered to ask the aliens to grant you a ride back home. We need the aliens to personally visit the planet, if we want to suppress the riots."_

The pinkette tapped her forehead with her fist. Too many questions were going through her head:

How was she supposed to do this?

How was she supposed to ask the aliens for a ride home?

How was she supposed to convince the Destiny crew to abandon the craft on Mars?

How were the aliens going to react to this?

How were the aliens' superiors going to react to this?

She had no idea what she was supposed to do, nor did she have any idea how the aliens were going to react to this.

"_Rena Kannomo. Are you still alive?"_

That silenced the questions that were swimming around in her head. "Forgive me, Freedom Star, but I'm just not sure how to proceed with this." She answered. "We came here, and made peaceful contact with multiple species that are very much like our own, only to have it create a massive hysteria on our own world. I just don't think we were ready for this." Rena finished.

And she was right. They were completely caught off guard by this event. She knew very well that this was going to have great risks, but this was not was she was expecting. Hell, there was probably no way that anyone could have foreseen this outcome.

"_There was no way you could have foreseen this Kannomo. None of us did. But for right now, it is imperative that you and the crew of the Destiny come back home, along with the Narina. The Aliens' visit to Earth is currently our best bet at quelling the riots. You must inform your crew as soon as possible."_

Seeing no other option, she decided to go for it. "Roger Freedom Star. I'll be sure to tell everyone about the news. Destiny out." She said.

After Rena cut the line she slumped back into her seat, and covered her face with her hands. She still had not the slightest idea what to do now. But for the moment, it looked like the only option that she had was to convince the aliens from the Narina to take them back to Earth as soon as possible, as well as to show the aliens directly to the public. But she knew damned well that it meant risking the lives of the aliens, and she knew for sure that if there was a galactic community out there, than chances were, they were probably not going to be happy about this.

After weighing her options, Rena pressed a button on her console, and moved in closer to a nearby speaker. "Everyone, I need you on the bridge. Something important has come up from the Freedom Star."

Now all she had to do was wait. And it didn't take long, within just several minutes, the rest of the crew arrived on the bridge. "Hello Kannomo. You said that something important came up from Freedom Star?" Guy asked.

Rena turned her chair around to face them. "Oh yeah. Something important has come up alright." She spoke. "Something _very_ complicated."

-oOo-

Captain Flynn Scifo let out a sigh as he sat in the back of the armored car.

He really didn't like this part of the job. The primary reason why he had joined law enforcement was just that; to uphold the law. But what he didn't realize, that it meant that he would have to take lives, as well as harm people. And today, he was doing something that he hated more than anything; suppressing a protest. There was a group of people in the public quarter in the capital that were voicing out, against First Contact. These people were absolutely convinced that the video feed was faked. Flynn, however, truly believed that First Contact was made, as he knew that there could be no possible way for the UER to joke about something as big as meeting aliens for the first time.

He was aware that some of his fellow officers were skeptical to this whole First Contact shtick, but they weren't taking it as far as these people were.

If there was one thing that he was hoping for, it's that he was hoping he wouldn't have to resort to using force to suppress the protesters. "Sir, we're about 5 minutes from the rendezvous point." The driver spoke.

"Copy that Chestel." Flynn replied. "Everyone, gear up. We're going in."

Right after he spoke, the others put on their helmets, and readied their rifles. All of them were hoping that they wouldn't have to resort to using them.

Minutes later, the car came to a stop, and one of the officers unlocked the door. Immediately afterwards, the officers all poured out of the vehicle, and made their way to the barricade that was in front of the parked vehicle. On the other side of the barricade were the protesters who denied the authenticity of the 'First Contact Footage'. They were all shouting different kinds of insults, and hate comments towards the UER. Flynn wasted no time in grabbing a mike to speak over their loud voices.

"_I am asking you all nicely to stand down! You are disturbing the peace, and are blocking traffic ways! So please, stand down!"_

This did not turn out well. For in response for Flynn's pleads, the protesters started throwing objects at Flynn and the officers. The officers responded by holding out their arms, and their mana shields flared up from the armbands on their wrists. It also caused the protesters to scream louder.

"SERVANT OF TYRANNY! YOUR LIFE IS FOREFEIT!"

"THE UER IS FAKING THIS! THERE ARE NO ALIENS ON MARS!"

"I WILL NEVER STAND DOWN TO TYRANNY!"

"YOUR 'FIRST CONTACT' PROPAGANDA HAS NO EFFECT ON ME!"

Flynn only groaned in response. But he wasn't giving up that easily.

"_The UER has no reason to falsify making first contact with aliens! The video footage is authentic! We have made contact with extraterrestrial life-"_

But the protesters weren't going to have any of it. One of the protesters conjured up a fireball and shot it at Flynn, which he ducked out of the way. It was clear to him that this wasn't going to work. He had really hoped that he wouldn't have to resort to this. Flynn leaned down, and put his mouth close to the ear of his lieutenant, Sodia. "Prepare the Sleepers." He whispered.

This caused Sodia to flinch. "Sir, are you sure about this?" she asked.

Flynn didn't respond, but he did sent a dismayed look on his face towards Sodia. That look was all Sodia needed to know that this was the only thing that was going to work. She nodded. "Alright sir."

With that, the violet eyed young woman made her way to her vehicle, and put her fingers on her communicator in her ear. "Everyone, initiate 'Sleepover'. I repeat; 'Sleepover'."

No-one liked what 'Sleepover' meant. Even though the technology was quite possibly the best thing that law enforcement could have in crowd control, it wasn't very well liked by many. On all of the armored vehicles on the officer's side of the barricade, a device rose up from their roofs and turned towards the protesters. The devices were shaped like discs, and once they were activated, the center of the discs began emitting a sound wave that sounded like a lullaby towards the protesters.

Some of the protesters recognized the devices, and immediately proceeded to take out music players of different types, and tried to plug in the earphones into their ears. This however, proved to be futile as the sound wave from the devices penetrated the earphones, and forced the protesters to fall asleep. Even without the music players, many of the protesters fell asleep instantly to the Sleepers. Most fell asleep in seconds, others took minutes, but there were some who were doing their absolute best to resist the sleepers, but were having little to no luck in doing so.

Seeing the protesters quiet down, Flynn wasted no time in going into action. "Get them all in handcuffs as quickly as possible before they wake up."

"Yes sir!" the officers all called out.

Right after they were given the order to arrest the protesters, the officers all climbed over the barricade, pulled out handcuffs, and secured as many of the sleeping protesters as they could. Some of the protesters were still drowsy, but could put up very little resistance.

Flynn couldn't help but feel sympathetic to the protesters. However, farthest away from the barricade, there were still a few protesters, who weren't yet affected by the Sleepers. He saw one of them preparing to launch a Spell Arte. Flynn didn't hesitate; he prepared his own Spell Arte, and launched it as soon as he could. "Photon!"

A yellow sphere materialized around the protesters and exploded in a flash of light. The flash didn't do any major harm to them, but it did seriously blind them, temporally. One of the officers saw what happened, and made a beeline for the protesters. The officer than drove his fist into each of the wavering protesters, stepping on the ones that were put to sleep by the Sleepers, and knocking them out.

Flynn was not having the kind of day he was hoping for, especially since he was now forced to use an Arte on protesters.

-oOo-

Leuitenant Colonel William Bishop and his squadron were escorting Airship One to the Washington Airdock.

He had listened to the news on the radio. Some members of his squadron were ecstatic to here that they had made First Contact with aliens out on Mars. However, a few of them were pretty skeptical, largely because they didn't see on television. The contact was made during their flight, and they weren't going to believe until they saw it for themselves. But at the same time, they had also heard about the protesting going around all over the planet, about the authenticity of the footage from Mars. They all agreed that those people were taking it too far.

Bishop looked down from the cockpit of his Falcon Rheaird. They had currently past the White House, and he could see protesters in front of the gates to the historic building. "I don't believe this." He said to himself.

The radio chirped. "Warwolf leader, do you copy?" he heard the voice of AWACS Fortuneteller.

Bishop straightened himself up, and looked forward. "Yes ma'am. What's the situation?" he asked.

"The Control Tower at Washington Airdock is requesting that I patch you and Airship One in. You might want to listen to this." The female pilot answered.

A second later, there was some beeping on the radio, then a chirp. "Warwolf Squadron, Airship One. You cannot land on the airdock. I repeat; you cannot land on the airdock!" The Control Tower called out.

That peaked Bishop's curiosity. Why couldn't they land on the Airdock? The president was going to have questions. "This is President Hamilton. Washington Airdock, why can't we land?" Bishop heard the president over the radio.

The colonel didn't have to wait long for an answer. "Airship One, there are protesters on the airdock. They're part of the Anti-First Contact movement that's happening all over the planet."

That was the one thing that Bishop was hoping was not the reason why they couldn't land. He closed his eyes and lowered his head in frustration. "Aye carumba. Are these panejos too dumb to live or something?" Bishop's number two, Guts asked over the radio.

The radio chirped. "Airship One, this is Albiore One, we are on our way to pick up the President and drop him off at the White House."

"Roger that Albiore One. Warwolf, Airship One, remain in hover mode until Marine Force One arrives to extract the President." Fortune Teller called out.

The Rheaird squadron and the Airship did just that. The engines in the back of the Rheairds and the engines on the front and back of Airship One, tilted downwards. Although Bishop was a distance away from the airdock, he could see the one hundred plus protesters that lined up on the docks. Something wasn't right. There shouldn't have been that many people on the docks. "Control Tower, where is the Airdock Security Forces?" he heard Guts beat him to the punch.

The radio buzzed. "Someone within our own ranks sabotaged the doors. We're not sure how, but someone had disabled the security measures on the doors, and allowed the protesters to reach the airdock unchallenged. That same mole has also prevented our security forces from reaching the airdock, by sealing off the passages right after the protesters reached the outside!" The control tower answered.

Of all of the stupid things in the stupid world, that had to be the stupidest thing to ever happen. Bishop lightly snarled at the answer. Why, or better yet, how could someone do such a thing? They were in the middle of history, and someone thought it was a good idea to take part in what could possibly be the most ridiculous, not to mention largest, protest in the world? This whole ordeal was really starting to make Bishop question the rationality of humanity in this age.

"This is Albiore One, we are five minutes away from your position Airship One."

The radio chirped. "This is Airship One, roger that."

There was a buzz on the radio. "This is the Washington D.C. Police Department; we are deploying our Sleeper Rheairds to the Airdock, to apprehend the protesters." A man over the radio called out.

From down below, Bishop could see four Hawke Rheairds, and a Condor Albiore painted black and white approaching the Airdock. From another direction, Bishop could make out the silhouettes of three Pelican Albiores approaching Airship One. The Pelican Albiores were painted dark blue, and were slightly larger than the Condor Albiore. One of the Pelicans' landed on the VTOL pad on Airship One, and Bishop could barely make out the President making his way towards the Pelican.

Back at the Airdock, Bishop watched as the Hawke Rheairds deployed their Sleeper devices on the protesters. The sight made him disgusted. He thought that magitechnology replacing standard jets was bad enough, but the fact that magitechnology made it possible to use machines to force people to fall asleep made it worse for him. His grandfather would tell him about how exhilarating flying a standard jet was back in the old days, before the Yggdrasil War. He even got to fly a fighter jet before he became part of the airforce. However, the airforce was now using VTOLs that could do what was thought to be impossible with VTOLs in the past, such as being about to hover at very high altitudes, as well as accelerating to supersonic speeds in less than a second, and removing the need for a mask.

Magitechnology made all of that possible. But Bishop never liked the idea of technology being powered by the planet's life force, even though it was clear that the UER had taken steps to make sure that the planet wouldn't slowly die from humanity's reliance on this new technology. Regardless, Bishop was willing to accept change. He knew that no matter how much he didn't like it, you could never stop change. "This is Albiore One, the president is secure, I repeat; the president is Secure."

The radio chirped. "Roger that, Albiore One. Warwolf, head to Washington Airbase, and await further orders." Fortuneteller called out.

"Warwolf One, roger that." Bishop replied.

"Airship One, the Police have secured the docks, you are now cleared to land on Washington Airdock." The AWACS announced.

"Airship One Roger that."

Bishop and his squadron flew away from the Airdock, while Airship One made its way to the Airdock. The only thing about Magitechnology that made Bishop rest easy, was knowing that Magitechnology made it easier to minimize collateral damage.

-oOo-

"Is the Surveyor prepped and ready?" Mavirea asked.

Derios and Yenvia both stepped down from the Surveyor, a five seat exploration vehicle that was designed to cross over any terrain. The two gave a nod in response. "Yes ma'am. The Surveyor is ready to go." Derios answered.

Before Mavirea could respond, her omni-tool started beeping. The matron brought her forearm up, and she pressed a hologram that was flashing. When she pressed the hologram, an image of Norlen popped up. "Is there something you want to tell me Norlen?" she asked.

Norlen nodded hastily. "Yes. I'm afraid I don't have good news. And I think it would be easier if I showed you what's going on." The salarian answered.

After Norlen finished speaking, the image disappeared, and Mavirea's omni-tool faded. The matron then walked out from the vehicle bay, and made her way to the bridge. Derios and Yenvia were watching nearby, and decided to follow Mavirea. "It looks like something has come up." Derios spoke.

After walking from the bay to the bridge, the three walked up to Norlen, who had his hands in a ball in from of himself. "You wanted to see us, Norlen?" Mavirea asked.

Norlen turned to face her and nodded. "Yes ma'am. And I don't think you're going to like what I'm about to show you." The salarian answered.

Derios looked at him in confusion. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

As Norlen continued typing into his console, he made a quick glance at the turian with a crooked jaw. "Oh yeah, something is wrong alright." He replied. "_Very_ wrong." Norlen added when he turned back to his console.

After he finished typing on his console, a screen came up, and a news broadcast from Earth was playing.

"_We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming, to bring you an emergency news report! In major cities all across the world, hundreds of people have taken to the streets, and are protesting against the authenticity of the so-called 'First Contact' footage that was taken on Mars, by the Martian Explorer team! A lot of the protesters are claiming that the footage is a forgery by the UER in a blind attempt to 'keep the people in line' as they claim! They're also adding into the fire that because radio transmissions suffer from lag range in the distance between Earth and Mars that the UER has had plenty of time to manipulate the footage into making it look like that the team had made contact with extraterrestrial life forms!"_

"_IT'S TIME FOR MANKIND TO WAKE UP! THE UER IS A FASCIST REGIME THAT WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO TAKE AWAY OUR FREEDOMS!"_

"_THOSE 'ALIENS' ARE NOTHING BUT BADLY MADE COMPUTER ANIMATION MADE BY THE TYRANNY THAT IS THE UER IN A FAILED ATTEMPT TO KEEP US IN LINE!"_

"_THE UER IS TRYING TO MAKE US INTO SHEEP! THERE IS NO MARTIAN EXPEDITION! THERE ARE NO ALIENS ON MARS! THIS IS ALL JUST A SCAM TO MAKE US BLIND TO WHAT THE UER REALLY IS!"_

"_So far, most attempts by world governments and the UER to prove that the footage is not fake have failed, and have only marginally suppressed the riots going on around the world! Fortunately, it has so far it not yet escalated into a full blown rebellion! For it seems that the protesters are divided between those who believe that there was a team that was sent to Mars, and those who do not believe that there is a Martian Expedition! These riots have resulted in thousands of injuries all cross the globe, and many deaths! One thing is clear though, these 'First Contact Riots' are clearly the largest protest ever made in human history!"_

While Norlen only stood there with his arms crossed, Mavirea, Derios, and Yenvia could only watch in horror. "Goddess. What have we done?" Yenvia asked.

"Should we contact the Citadel, Captain?" Derios asked.

Mavirea didn't respond. She just stood there watching the news footage from Earth. She watched as the protesters were either getting beaten up by law enforcement, put to sleep by some strange device that the humans possess, or worse, watching the protesters overpower law enforcement.

"_Hello? Mavirea are you there?"_

That snapped the asari matron out of her thoughts. She then made her way to her own console, and pressed a hologram on it. "Yes, Rena? Are you… Going to ask about the riots on your homeworld?" she asked the human commander.

There was a moment's pause, before Rena sent her an answer.

"_I wish it was something else. But I'm afraid the Freedom Star is asking us to ask you for something."_

Mavirea could only image what. "What does, Freedom Star want?"

The answer was exactly what the Asari matron was expecting.

"_They want us to ask you to come with us to Earth, in the hopes that your presence will quell the riots."_

-oOo-

CODEX ENTRY: Artes

During the excavation of the Shrine of Maxwell, several books were discovered containing glyphs that supposedly detailed how humans could manipulate the life force of the planet. When they were first discovered, archeologists dismissed these glyphs as superstitious. But after the Yggdrasil War, the destructive power of the 'Weapons of Jin' made GDI take these glyphs much more seriously, and studies revealed that the glyphs did what the books claimed they did.

Artes come in three forms, Strike, Range, and Magic.

Strike Artes are special techniques that temporarily increase the average human's reflexes, speed, and strength, and only use a small amount of the planet's life force. Strike Artes can only be used by wielding melee weapons.

Range Artes can only be used by ranged weapons, and cause varying effects on the shots made by the ranged weapon, such as making the shots explode on impact, making a shot freeze its target, or even shooting multiple shots that deal more damage than a normal shot.

Magic Artes meanwhile are supernatural attacks in which humans conjure up fireballs, bolts of lightning, or even ethereal lances made out of darkness. Magic Artes are the most powerful form of Artes, and for this reason, Magic Artes take time to use, as the 'Spell Caster' needs to be able to collect the planet's life force into his/her body and give it shape before sending it out to the enemy.

CODEX ENTRY: Sleeper Device

A Sleeper device is a relatively new Magitechnology that has recently come online.

Sleepers emit invisible ripples in the planet's life force that floats around in the air and passes through organic matter. These ripples sound like lullabies, and cause organic beings to tire out and eventually fall asleep. Most of the time, the ripples take seconds to put the targets to sleep, but there have been cases of the ripples taking minutes to put the targets to sleep.

The amount of time it takes fall asleep from the Sleeper's effects greatly depends on the individual. If an individual is exposed to these ripples for far too long, there's a chance that the individual might permanently fall asleep. A Sleeper device can only focus these ripples in the direct that it's facing. For this reason, multiple Sleepers are needed in order to suppress entire crowds.

When a Sleeper device is used on protesters, some will try to use music devices to try to resist the Sleeper's effects. This in no way prevents the individual from falling asleep from the Sleeper, as the ripples are not sound waves. Despite this, the only way to prevent from falling asleep from the Sleeper is to either stand out of its line of sight, or to hide behind solid objects, as the ripples cannot pass through solid matter.

Despite the Sleeper's effectiveness in crowd control, it is not a very well-liked device, even among law enforcement, as some people see its use as excessive force. Despite the Sleeper's unpopularity, it is widely agreed by the UER that the Sleeper is the best way to prevent crowds from becoming too violent.

CODEX ENTRY: Rheairds

Rheairds are a pre-Dark Calamity technology who's 'Blueprints' were found in the Shrine of Maxwell.

The first Rheaird was encountered during the Battle for Yggdrasil, the climactic battle of the Yggdrasil War. The Rheaird was superior to every fighter jet that had fought against it, as the Rheaird had access to weaponry that was impossible at the time, and was capable of pulling of maneuvers that were down-right inconceivable. Despite its astonishing abilities, the Rheaird was shot down by GDI ace pilot Marcus 'Descender' Falco.

After the Rheaird was shot down, GDI was able to salvage the aircraft, and began reverse engineering it. After the first reverse engineered Rheaird was constructed, the GDI immediately began testing the craft. Its performance was 'Practically Equal' to the original Rheaird, and it impressed the GDI leadership so much that it immediately saw service after the Yggdrasil War.

Rheairds fly through the use of 'Mana Engines'. These engines work like a standard jet engine, only instead of taking in air, the engines instead take in the planet's life force, condense it, and shoot it out without igniting it. Rheairds also contain pressurized cabins, removing the need for a mask. They also contain 'dampeners', which are somehow able to almost completely remove g-forces made on the pilot during flight.

Today, many variations of Rheairds exist, for civilians, law enforcement, and the military, ranging from Flying Jet Skies to Fighter Bombers. All variations of Rheairds are VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing), but only military variations are capable of supersonic flight.

CODEX ENTRY: Albiores

Albiores are a pre-Dark Calamity technology who's 'Blueprints' were found in the Shrine of Maxwell.

Unlike the Rheaird, Albiores were not encountered during the Yggdrasil War. Albiores use the same fuel souces as Rheairds, but are larger. Also like Rheairds, Albiores use VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing). Albiores are usually winged shaped, and have two 'Mana Engines' on either side of the wings. Albiores are slower than Rheairds due to their size, and are less maneuverable. However, Albiores are faster and more maneuverable than standard jumbo jets. Unlike the Rheairds, Albiores can fly up into the stratosphere, where they are safe from anti-aircraft fire.

Albiores have many variations that are used by law enforcement, coporations, and the military.

CODEX ENTRY: Airships and Airdocks

With the rise of Magitechnology, aircraft the size of ships became possible.

The first airship, called the Nimbus, was launched in 2040. The Nimbus was able to successfully navigate through a hurricane that was conveniently in its flight path during its testing, due to a miscalculation from a nearby weather station. After the success of the Nimbus, various cruise lining companies were able to purchase the blueprints of the 'Mana Engines', and began constructing their own airships.

The militaries of the world also purchased the 'Blueprints' to the 'Mana Engines', and began building aerial warships. When Airships saw military use, most had agreed that Airships rendered Navies obsolete. However, many disagreed that Airships would remove Navies, as Airships are fully capable of landing and sailing through the oceans.

Even though Airships are fully capable of landing in the ocean, the various nations across the world constructed Airdocks, in which airships would be able to land away from the ocean. Airdocks are large towers about half a mile in height. The number of docks that are along each Airdock varies, depending on the location. Airdocks hold massive reservoirs of water in each dock to allow the Airships to land and lift off safely.

* * *

**So tell me, what do you think of the Codex Entries for this chapter?**

**The Codexes are part of the reason why this chapter is longer than usual.**

**Any who, you all know the routine: Read and Review.**


	6. Chekov's Gun

**So, yeah, this chapter was meant to be longer, but I felt that I had worked on it long enough.**

**Also, this chapter is meant to foreshadow upcoming events in the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

The Destiny crew was standing outside of the Narina.

At the moment, Mavirea was making preparations to take them in. They had much to talk about, especially with the political shitstorm that was going on back on Earth. They really wished they would be visiting the Narina under happier circumstances. But if they had any chance at quelling the riots back home, they needed their help. And right now, it looked like they were about to get that help, as the ramp from the Narina's entrance had just lowered itself to the Crew of the Destiny.

"_I apologize for the delay; we were just finishing disinfecting our ship, to avoid any cross species infections."_

Rena was the first to respond. "You don't need to apologize, Mavirea. I think I can understand the need to disinfect the ship."

Right after the ramp touched down on the ground in front of them, the Destiny crew began walking up the ramp. Once they reached the door, Rena noticed that there was a rectangular hologram with a circle on its left side on it. As if on instinct, Rena reached for the circle, and it began spinning. After it spun for a few seconds, the hologram vanished, and the door split open into fifths, and retracted into the hull of the Narina. "Awesome!" Guy spoke up.

Right after the door opened, the five astronauts walked into the airlock. Once all five of them were in, the door behind them closed. A second later, they all heard a hissing noise around them.

"_Pressurizing Airlock, please stand by."_

"A synthetic voice? Nice, do they an AI on this ship?" Guy asked.

"_No, AIs are illegal in the Council. What you heard was our VI, Virtual Intelligence."_

Guy hung his arms, and tilted his head. A moment later, the hissing died off.

"_Pressurization complete."_

Right after the hissing noise died off, a white light past by the astronauts, causing Pascal to flinch.

"_Decontamination in progress."_

While the others stood still, Pascal had her leg up, and her arms in an X. After passing them three times, the light dimmed.

"_Decontamination complete."_

The next second, the door on the inside opened up, just like the door behind them. On the other side, Mavirea, and a whole group of aliens, greeted them. "Welcome aboard the ESV Narina, Rena, Ruca, Guy, Genis, and Pascal. I um… apologize for the rather-" The asari turned around to glare at the crowd. "Unwanted attention from my crew."

The crowd behind her backed up. The Destiny crew merely gave a chuckle. "We appreciate the thought Mavirea." Rena replied as she removed her helmet.

The rest of the Destiny crew followed suit and removed their helmets as well. "Who has the Wing Pack?" Rena asked her fellow crewmen.

Ruca reached into a pocket that he had in his suit, and pulled out the Wing Pack, which was a small metal object with a wing emblem on it hence, the name. "Um, I do." He answered.

Rena nodded. "Alright, open it up." She ordered.

"Right away." Ruca responded.

The grey haired young man pressed a button on the Wing Pack. The device split open, and the center began emitting a white light. The aliens all looked at the device with curiosity. One by the one, the Destiny Crew held their helmets above the Wing Pack and each of the helmets were sucked into it. The aliens all gasped in amazement. "By the goddess!" Mavirea called out. "How, what, the helmets, that device, how?"

"Incredible!" Norlen called out.

The salarian immediately ran up next to Ruca, with his omni-tool glowing, and hovering over the Wing Pack. Ruca backed up in a minor panic. The alien in all of his excitement typed various holograms on the omni-tool, at a speed that would make many fast typers envious. "More of that unknown energy! Incredible! Absolutely- This could provide a humongous technological leap, an-"

Before Norlen could continue, Mavirea wrapped her arms around him, and pulled him back, with a frown on her face. "I apologize for Norlen's rash behavior." Mavirea spoke up.

"Wait, wait! Need more study! Must uncover how that device works, must-"

Before he could continue, Mavirea slammed her fist, which was emitting a dark aura, onto the top of Norlen's head. The salarian's eyes spun around while he mumbled out random words. A second later, Norlen fainted, snoring loudly. Mavirea groaned in annoyance. Afterwards, she gestured for one of the turians to come up, and handed the salarian over to him. "Take him to his quarters before he wakes up." The asari ordered.

The turian grabbed ahold of Norlen, and nodded at Mavirea. "Right away captain." He replied as he walked through the crowd, and disappeared down the hallway.

The Destiny crew looked at Mavirea dumbstruck. "How, did you do that?" Rena asked.

Mavirea stared at Rena confused, before realizing what she had just asked about. "Oh, do you mean this?" she asked, bring her fist up.

The fist that Mavirea brought up began emitting the same dark aura from before. "Yes that." Rena replied. "Are you a Spell Caster?"

The asari blinked in confusion. "What's a 'Spell Caster'?" she asked.

The Destiny Crew all looked at each other. But seconds afterwards, they all turned their attention to Pascal. "Nope." The multicolored haired girl remarked.

At that moment, Genis walked up right next to Rena. "I'm a spell caster. As well as Pascal, but she doesn't like showing it off." He said, turning his head around to look at her.

Pascal only humphed, and turned her head away. After the silver haired young man finished speaking, he took off his space suit, and handed it over to Ruca. He then held the suit over the Wing Pack, and the suit was sucked into the device. Genis then held out his hand, and it began emitting an orange aura. The aliens all slowly moved into closer, but backed off the instant the orange aura burst into a flame that Genis was holding in his hand. The aliens all looked at the flame with varying degrees of shock and awe, as well as call out their religious figures. "Goddess!" an asari called out.

"Spirits!" a trurian gawked.

"Incredible!" a salarian spoke up.

"Neat isn't it?" Genis asked.

Many of the aliens were completely dumbstruck at Genis' demonstration. "How, is that not burning your hand?" Yenvia asked.

"Lots of practice." The young man answered.

Derios had his bottom jaw hanging from his mandibles. A second later, he shook his head and regained his composure. "Ah how are you doing that?" the turian asked.

Right after Derios asked the question, the flame in Genis' hand died off, and Rena took a step forward. "I believe it would be easier to explain-" she eyed the crowd. "If we took this in private."

Mavirea nodded. "Alright everyone, back to your stations. All of you." She called out.

After Mavirea gave the order, the crowd dispersed, each of them making various groans and grabbles. Mavirea then turned back to face the Destiny Crew. "Now that that's out of the way. If you will follow me." She said pointing down the hallway.

The Destiny Crew nodded and began following Mavirea.

-oOo-

Siegfried was standing over a cliffside that was watching over a terrorist base, while keeping himself hidden behind a rock.

Even with the Martian Expedition (and by extension First Contact) going on, there were still those who threatened innocent lives all across the world. It was thanks to Third Echelon that he and his men were able to find this base, as they had been looking for it for months, and come to find out, it was an old decommissioned GDI base that was hidden within the Fooji Mountains in the Tethe'allen Empire. Siegfried watched as the terrorists were prepping pre-Yggdrasil War weapons. These weapons were now rendered obsolete, thanks to magitechnology. Despite this, Siegfried was fully aware that even though they were hardly used anymore, that they were still very dangerous. "Master, the remaining squads have arrived on schedule." He heard a voice say behind him.

Siegfried turned around to face the source of the voice, his apprentice Patrokolas, and nodded. "Good. I have just finish my observations, Patrokolas." He replied as he walked away from the rock.

"Great. So, how do you think we should proceed?" Patrokolas asked following his master.

Siegfried came to a stop right in the middle of the camp, pulled out a tablet from his pocket, and held it out. The veteran pressed a button on the tablet and a hologram of the base projected from the back of the device onto the ground, while the squads gathered around it. "The main entrance of the base is located here." Siegfried said as the gate on the southern wall of the hologram turned red.

"The main entrance is guarded by two machine gun nests on both sides of the entrance." As Siegfried spoke the two towers on both sides of the gate turned red. "And if my memory is correct, those two machine guns are automated, making them much more accurate than standard manned turrets. As you can obviously tell, a frontal attack is not an option."

One of the squad leaders rose his hand up. "Sir, if I may?" he asked.

"Go ahead Jazz."

"While me and my team were making our way up this mountain, we saw what looked like a hidden entrance to the base." Jazz said.

Siegfried raised an eyebrow. "It must have been one of the emergency tunnels in the event of an evacuation. Do you know where this entrance is located?" he asked.

Jazz turned around and pointed his left finger towards the path that he and his squad came from. "It's about a 40 minute walk from here down that path. And it's very well hidden. I spot it through a waterfall." The brunette turned to face his superior. "And I had sent one of my own men to scout it, and report back when he could." He added.

"And I've come back on time." A voice spoke out.

Everyone had turned to face the source of the voice. It was one of Jazz's men; he was all sweaty, and dirty from running up the path. "Allegretto? Were you spotted?" Jazz asked as the young man walked up to the briefing.

Allegretto simply shook his head. "No, but it was a close call. If it wasn't for a little rat I might have been caught." He answered as he lightly chuckled.

"Private." Siegfried started. "Were you able to get into the base?" The veteran asked.

Allegretto nodded energetically. "Yes sir." He answered.

A second later, Allegretto pulled out his own tablet, and began pressing buttons. As he did, the hologram from Siegfried's tablet shrunk a bit, and a long slender line extended out from the base, to another location. "The tunnel goes from the waterfall to what used to be the mess hall of the base." As Allegretto spoke, the slender line, and a building in the base turned red.

The building in question was located on the eastern portion of the base. "The mess hall is also the least heavily guarded part of the base. We could use it to get into the base." Allegretto added.

Siegfried nodded. "Excellent. Were you able to get Intel on other parts of the base?" he asked.

Allegretto nodded. "Yes sir." He answered.

The grey-haired young man began typing in buttons on his tablet. "I was able to slip past the guards in the armory, and found several crates containing something." As he spoke, his table began emitting a hologram of its own.

The hologram was of video footage from Allegretto's helmet. The footage showed Allegretto lightly walking past a couple of guards in the armory. As he did, he approached the crates that were in the armory. When he reached them, he slowly and carefully opened one of the crates. Once the crate was opened, the young man looked into the crate, and inside were small glass tubes containing rods of metal that were emitting a dark purple light. "I wasn't able to get a sample of one of those things, but a short while afterwards, I heard footsteps, and bolted out of there as soon as I could." As Allegretto spoke, the footage showed him facing to the left, and he could see a shadow from around the corner getting closer.

In the footage, Allegretto closed the crate as discretely as he could and slowly but quickly started sneaking his way out of the armory. "It was at that point that I was almost caught, but the guards became distracted by an innocent rat that was just passing by." The young man spoke.

At that moment, the video ended, however, Siegfried wasn't quite finished. "Private, could you rewind it back to when you opened the crate?" he asked.

The private nodded. "Yes sir." He answered.

Allegretto pressed a button on his tablet and the footage rewind itself straight back to when Allegretto had opened the crate. Once it reached that point he paused the video. "That's what I saw in the crate. Do you know what it is?" the private asked.

Siegfried blankly stared at the image, as did Jazz and the other squad leaders. The squad members were all staring at the image confused. Allegretto tilted his head. "Sir?" He asked.

Siegfried deactivated his tablet, and approached Allegretto. "We need to discuss this in private." He whispered into Allegretto's ear.

The veteran turned to face Jazz and gestured him to follow. Jazz nodded in response. Allegretto deactivated his tablet and followed the two officers off the camp. Patrkolas stayed behind, he knew full well, that this wasn't of any of his concern, even though a part of him wanted to follow his master.

Once the three men were out of the camp, Siegfried stood straight and placed his hands behind his back. "Allegretto. What I'm about to tell you is classified. You are not to disclose this to anyone. If you do, you will be charged with treason, and be given a dishonorable discharge. If you disclose to anyone outside the military, you will be incarcerated for the remainder of your lifetime. Is that understood?" he asked without turning around.

Allegretto nodded in response. "Y-yes sir." He acknowledged.

Siegfried then made a complete One hundred and Eighty degree turn to face Allegretto. "Allegretto, as you are no doubt aware, the Shrine of Maxwell was discovered on May 27th 2014, correct?" he asked.

Allegretto nodded. "Yes sir, everyone knows that. Why?" he asked.

"Are you also aware that the mythical metal Aionis was discovered inside the Shrine of Maxwell?" Siegfried asked.

Again Allegretto nodded. "Yes sir. But Aionis is not used to absorb mana anymore. We now use-" Before Allegretto continued, a thought a struck him. "S-sir. Was what I found in those crates…?" He hesitated.

"Aionis?" Siegfried helped him finish.

Allegretto felt something fall into his stomach. "But, if that was Aionis, then what grade was it? It didn't look like any grade that I know of." He almost yelled out.

"What you saw was Pure Aionis. And Pure Aionis was used to fuel the 'Weapons of Jin' during the Yggdrasil war." Jazz spoke up.

Allegretto turned white. "He is correct, Allegretto. And Pure Aionis is kept hidden from the public for that very reason." Siegfried added.

Allegretto stood frozen in place, the color in his body completely gone. "If these terrorist have pure grade Aionis in their possession, then this mission has gotten really complicated." Siegfried said.

The veteran walked past Allegretto, and up to Jazz. "Tell the troops that we're heading out immediately. We'll use the hidden entrance you found to get into the base, eliminate the terrorist inside, and secure the Aionis." Siegfried spoke in a tone of authority.

Jazz straightened up and saluted. "Yes sir." The officer immediately bolted towards the base.

Siegfried turned around and saw that Allegretto had not moved an inch from where he was standing. The veteran walked up to him, and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You did good kid. We're lucky you found that stuff before it was used." He assured him.

Allegretto shrugged it off, and looked at Siegfried with renewed vigor. "Thank you sir. Though I have to ask? Why is it called 'Pure Aionis'? I thought that the Aionis that we infuse with mana crystals and our armor was pure Aionis."

Siegfried sighed. "No son. What we use is only half pure. True Pure Aionis is too dangerous to fiddle around with, due to it having the potential to literally suck the life of organic life forms."

Allegretto bit lower lip in response. He wanted to continue with the subject, but felt that he was already running out of time. "Forgive me for speaking freely sir, but I think we should save this conversation for another time sir. No offence."

Siegfried smiled. "None taken son."

"Sir." Jazz called out.

They both turned to face the brunette. "The squads are ready. And I've already briefed them on the crates. I informed them that was inside is classified." Jazz said.

Siegfried nodded. "Good. We depart immediately." The veteran stated.

Jazz saluted, and walked back to the camp. Siegfried turned around to send Allegretto one last glance. The young man straightened himself up, saluted, and made his way to the camp. But before Siegfried followed them, the veteran looked up at the night sky, staring into the direction of Mars.

He had heard the news about the historic moment that had occurred on the red planet. The expedition that was sent to the neighboring planet had just made contact with life from outside the solar system. To say that the event had filled Siegfried with enthusiasm would be an understatement. Siegfried was getting old, but he never once thought that he would live to see the day when they would make First Contact. Regardless, he knew that his time was nearing, and that this was going to be his last mission before retirement. But at least he could rest easy, knowing that he would foil a terrorist plot that involved Pure Aionis before his retirement.

He was planning to label this day as one of his most favored moments of his life.

-oOo-

CODEX ENTRY: Wing Packs

Wing Packs are a pre-Dark Calamity magitechnology whose 'Blueprints' were found in the Shrine of Maxwell.

Not only were the 'Blueprints' to these magnificent devices discovered, but there were also a few surviving samples of these devices in storage in the Shrine of Maxwell. Very little is known about Wing Packs, even the 'Blueprints' to the Wing Packs had little information on them. All that's known about Wing Packs is that they are a Pocket Dimensional Storage Device. How this Pocket Dimension is produced was not explained by the 'Blueprints', nor are modern scientists able to figure out how they work either. Regardless, the fact that Wing Packs work at all, is why they are a favorite among travelers on Earth.

The Wing Pack can theoretically store an infinite amount of objects in it, and can even store objects that are larger than itself in the device. Despite this, the Wing Pack cannot absorb certain objects beyond a specific amount of mass. Though exactly how much mass the Wing Pack can absorb from a single object is unknown, as some have claimed that Wing Packs can't absorb anything bigger than a heavy duty pickup truck, while others say that Wing Packs can't absorb anything bigger than a fishing boat.

CODEX ENTRY: Aionis

When the Shrine of Maxwell was discovered, there were several crates in storage that contained a mythical metal known as Aionis.

During the Pre-Dark Calamity Era, Aionis was used to absorb the planet's life force to fuel magitechnology. Although the metal absorbed the planet's life force like a sponge, and provided insurmountable amounts of energy, the metal had one glaring drawback. Aionis powered magitechnology burned the amount of the planet's life force that it would absorb.

The amount of the planet's life force that Aionis would absorb would depend on the metal's quality. Impure Aionis would only absorb small quantities of the planet's life force, while Half Pure Aionis would absorb moderate amounts of the planet's life force. But Pure Aionis could absorb the planet's life force from long distances, and would even absorb the planet's life force that resided within organic beings nearby as well. For this reason, only Pure Aionis was used to power the 'Weapons of Jin', and it is speculated that Half Pure Aionis was used to provide power to citizens of the Pre-Dark Calamity era.

After the Yggdrassil War, the GDI decided to prohibit the use of Aionis to fuel magitechnology, but also kept the existence of Pure Aionis hidden, instead proclaiming that Half Pure Aionis, was Pure Aionis. Ironically, Pure Aionis, the size of a grain of sand, is needed in order to produce mana crystals, and to add even more irony, is that in order to get the best results, Aionis needs to be infused into the crystals at the right quantity in order to be able to recycle the planet's life forces at the desired percentage.

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**Not much to say after this point.**

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